Back From the Dead
by SlytherinsScribe
Summary: It's seven years after the war, and all the people that Voldemort and his inner circle killed are coming back to life. This story generally follows Lily and James Potter as they try to find Harry. See what happens...
1. Chapter 1

Here's a new fanfic from the mind of Lemonbomber, it's a scary place. This should help explain later chapters. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do _NOT_ own Harry Potter, but it would be fun if I did… ; )

He didn't want to admit it. It was supposed to be a safe world now. The last two years had brought strangeness, but he had been able to ignore it then. Now the insolent young man stood tauntingly in front of in a bragging way, though he had barely said a word. They were coming back, every year they came back from the one place people weren't supposed to come back from.

"Kingsley…" The man said to him, "First Myrtle, then the Riddles. Now some of his unloyal followers have returned, including Regulus Black. You can't cover it up now, too many are back."

He thought a moment, "You're sure they're back, Potter?"

Harry took a step closer and looked Kingsley in the eye, "Two Aurors were killed by the unfaithful deatheaters, another is in Mungo's. They're back."

"Why do you care?" Kingsley asked, "You aren't the head of department, remember?"

"I've told you my suspicions before, they're all going to came back. Most of them the seventh after the war." Harry's green eyes gleamed, "That includes the dark wizards he killed, even those his followers killed."

Kingsley didn't like Harry's logic, though he knew it to be true, "Isn't there somewhere you need to be?"

Harry hid a laugh, "Yeah, I should be getting ready for my wedding tomorrow. Good day Minister." Harry left the room in good humor.

Kingsley wondered how a person who'd seen so much death could be so happy. Then he remembered the two weeks he took himself from the magical world after the final battle in order to sort things out. Apparently he was getting along with his cousin, and he and his Aunt shared an indifferent relationship, his uncle had died the year after the final battle. He'd helped a lot with rebuilding the ministry, and searching out the traitorous people buried within the ministry. Kingsley smiled as he remembered the look on his face as he locked Deloris Umbridge in Azkaban.

Of coarse, it had been his idea to separate the ministry from the Aurors. When asked why he simply asked if I remembered the second war. The Aurors couldn't help people because they were controlled by the Ministry, now the Ministry had to deal with what the Aurors did to make the world safe. Even if he wasn't the head of the department the head treated him as a second in command, as if training him for the job. Kingsley remembered when the old wizard would claim he was too old and suggest Harry just take over now, he would have the department ten times as productive in a day, whether impossible or not.

And now he's getting married, and to Ginny Weasley no less. She has only been seeker for the Hollyland Harpies for two years, but her name is known almost as widely as Harry's. Their wedding had been decided to be as small as possible, Ginny's parents and brothers, Ron as bestman with his fiancé Hermione as maid of honor, Harry's Aunt and cousin, and Hagrid, who had taken Harry in as a little brother. Altogether twelve guests, baby Victoire, and the bride and groom, making fifteen.

Kingsley remembered what Harry had said about the seventh year, dark wizards would be returning to our world. He rubbed his temples, _we'll deal with it when it comes._

This is just a short prologue, story starts in next chapter, Enjoy!


	2. The ACTUAL chapter 1

Author's Note: Here goes the first chapter, enjoy!

Disclaimer: Don't own Harry Potter.

It was a dizzying feeling, followed by every inch of their body aching, but soon all went away. The man was first to open his eyes, the woman next, everything was blurry, but soon fell into focus. They saw a house that was completely ruined, covered in ivy and other weeds that sprouted everywhere in the wood. The man stood up, stumbled a bit, then helped the woman up. Her green eyes were wide in awe, "Are we really alive?"

He looked around warily, "I don't know, how could we be?"

She took his hand and held it nervously as they stepped through their old door into a mess of a garden. The chain link fence in front of the house was rusted thoroughly and parts had rusted away, and something compelled them to look back at the house. They saw a part of the house that had the appearance of being blown off, but they had no clue how. The two were devastated at the state of their home wondering how long they had been dead, though didn't remember fully how they died.

Suddenly a sign burst up from the ground between them forcing them to part. After the shock they became curious and looked around at the other side of the sign. It was a simple wood sign with gold letters covered in nettles and moss. It was evident people had written on it, but the words shown through:

On this spot, on the night of 31 October 1981,

Lily and James Potter lost their lives.

Their son, Harry, remains the only wizard

ever to have survived the Killing Curse.

This house, invisible to Muggles, has been left

in it's ruined state as a monument to the Potters

and as a reminder of the violence

that tore apart their family.

They read it solemnly, and broke into smiles at the third line. Their son had survived! They read a few of the messages that mysteriously offered support to Harry, but for what? The newest message was in bottle-green ink, and a similar hand to the woman's.

I thank those who supported me,

even when most doubted.

I am eternally grateful to the D.A. and Order,

and in mourning to those who gave their lives.

HP

"Harry…" The woman said, "What's happened?"

A crack sounded behind them, "A lot." A voice said behind them, they turned reaching for their wands, but found nothing. In a panic they stared at the newcomers, two men. The speaker was a bit taller than James, with bright red hair, freckles and a young face. The other was a thin blacked hair boy who held his wand nervously, hoping not to use it. Both wore floor length black robes. "It's okay, we're friends."

"We've never met, how are we friends?" James said in a low voice.

The two exchanged glances, the red head replied, "Moony and Padfoot are waiting for you Prongs and Lily."

Lily was uneasy still, "Who are you?"

The red head was first to answer, "Ron, the youngest of the Weasley sons."

The black haired boy replied, "And I'm Neville Longbottom."

"Longbottom? Are you Alice and Frank's son?" James asked.

The man paled a little, "Yeah, we were sent to take you to the ministry."

At their confused looks Ron added, "We need you to go through orientation before living in the real world again."

"One question." Lily said, "How long have we been dead?"

Ron answered, "About twenty-four years."

The Potters were dragged through several long hallways in the Ministry by the two men until they came to a door that the men told them to go through. They did as they were told, closing the heavy door behind them. Before they looked around the room they heard a yell, "James!" And soon someone was hugging James.

"Sirius?" James asked as he freed himself.

His friend looked much older, and gaunt as a skeleton, "Yeah, Moony's here too. And you have to see what he's done while we were dead."

They looked where Sirius pointed, Remus was as ragged and shabby as ever, but had his arm around the shoulder of a woman with bright pink hair. They came over and Remus said happily, "Hi James, I'd like you to meet my wife, Dora."

"You're married! Moony, the sensible Marauder got married! And let me guess, Siri was in Azkaban and Peter joined the dark side." He said jokingly.

"Actually, Peter did join the dark side, and I was in Azkaban because I tried to kill him for betraying you." Sirius said seriously, "I became the first to ever escape Azkaban."

They were shocked again, but it explained the way Sirius looked. Lily asked, "So everyone here was dead?"

Remus nodded, "Moody was helping Harry escape Voldemort after sixth year, Dobby, the hous elf in the corner saved four of the original six, Ollivander, another student, and a goblin that cost his life, me, Dora and the Weasley kid along with a few others were killed in the final battle, and Sirius was killed by drapery."

"Drapery?" James said questioningly.

"For the last time, it was a magical veil in the department of mysteries." Sirius said angrily.

Lily looked around the room, "How did Dumbledore get here?"

Sirius frowned, "Apparently _he_ killed him. He was in with Voldemort the whole time, and he was the potions teacher at Hogwarts." Sirius pointed to a greasy haired man in the corner.

"Snivellous." James said angrily and walked over to him. "I always knew you were evil."

"I think you have some things confused, Potter." Snape's eyes were filled with hate as he stood.

A person no one recognized stepped in between them, "If anyone fights in here they're going to wish they never came back to life." His stern voice was clear throughout the room, his eyes moved slowly between the Marauders and Snape. The man wasn't big, looking nearly scrawny, a couple inches taller than James, but still shorter than Sirius. He wore simple black robes with no adornment. He had long hair that went to his shoulders, some was pulled back in a ponytail, the rest shielded his forehead and grey eyes from view.

James scowled at his long time enemy, but he and the other marauders moved away nonetheless. The man, who looked to be in his thirties moved on through a connecting door. When he was gone James asked, "Who was that?"

Most people shrugged, "I have no idea, but he didn't seem to friendly." Moody replied.

Lily scrunched her face in confusion, "How did they get _you_?"

"We were moving Harry to a new location, Mundungus' cowardice got me killed." Moody growled, Sirius frowned in dislike of the man.

"Who did kill Fletcher?" He asked.

The door the man had gone through opened as he spoke, it was Ron, "Unfortunately no one, yet. A couple of our aurors are waiting for him to do something stupid so we can arrest him and hopefully sentence him on treason during the second war."

The room was silent a moment, then a red haired man jumped up and hugged Ron saying, "Ickle Ronniekins!"

"Nice to see you too, Fred," And pushed him away looking beet red in the face, "If you'll all go through here we'll tell you what you need to get around the world since your deaths." As they walked in Ron was whispering to Fred about calling him 'Ickle Ronniekins'.

A/N: I love calling Ron 'Ickle Ronnikins' as much as I like calling Voldemort 'Voldie'. I'm with Sirius, let's kill 'Dung, in fact… Oh, thanks for reading, please read and reply!


	3. The ACTUAL chapter 2

Author's Note: In this chapter you will encounter sarcastic marauders, an angry auror, Hagrid with a strange creature, and James looking like an idiot, sort of. Hope you enjoy chapter 2!

Disclaimer: Don't own Harry Potter, or Deathly Hallows wouldn't have been the end.

The room was wide, half filled with twenty-eight big school desks arranged in four rows, the front half had a black board against the wall, a mannequin, a large open area to the left side of the front, and a wide table with books and four stacks of papers on it's surface. Ron ushered them in quickly getting them all to sit in the front three rows. They were surprised to see a kid that couldn't have been out of Hogwarts at his death sit down. Ron nervously went to the front of the room.

"Just as an introduction, in the next three hours you will be brought up to speed by five well respected professionals at their fields. After three of the lectures you will be tested on what you know, in order to be allowed to roam freely you must pass all three along with having a background check from an auror while using veritaserum to assure you tell the truth." Ron rattled off.

"My job is to teach the history of the war, because we have two people who have been dead twenty-four years I will begin at the beginning, and there will be a test. As we all know twenty-four years ago Voldemort was creating chaos. That year a prophecy was made about Voldemort's downfall. Only three people have heard it, but to some affect it said the boy that had been born at the end of July the year before to parents who had defied the dark lord three times would have the power to defeat him." Ron began growing more comfortable.

He continued, "Only two people fit the prophecy, Harry Potter and Neville Longbottom. Voldemort heard about the prophecy and assumed it to be Harry thinking he would be the larger threat. So on October 31 he went to Godric's Hallow, killed James, then Lily, but when he attempted to kill Harry an ancient magic involving sacrifice reversed the spell. It did not kill Voldemort because Voldemort had five horcruxes already, and since he was attempting to make a horcrux with Harry's death Harry was made into the horcrux leaving him with a lightning shaped scar."

"For ten years Voldemort was assumed dead, but reappeared as a shadow of a soul that was being cared for by Quirrel, and was defeated by Harry in his frst year. He was gone for another two, supposedly living in his dead father's old house. At the end of Harry's fourth year Voldemort used harry to resurrect his body, it wasn't until a year later that the ministry found out that Voldemort was really back. That year the D.A., a younger version of the Order was created to fight Voldemort."

"The first year of what became the second war Voldemort regained his large number of death eaters, infiltrated Hogwarts, and at the end of that year Dumbledore died-"

"He was murdered." Sirius interrupted.

Ron looked up questioningly at Dumbledore, who nodded, "Dumbledore was killed on his own orders by a trusted Order member, it was all planned. The Summer following his death Voldemort took over the Ministry using the Imperious Curse, and made attendance at Hogwarts mandatory, put a double agent on our side in the position of Hogwarts headmaster, and replaced the Defense Against dark Arts classes with Dark Arts classes putting deatheaters as teachers. "

"That year should have been me, Harry and Hermione Granger's seventh year, but we skipped and hunted the Horcruxes, the last was at Hogwarts where the final battle began. During the battle Harry went to Voldemort in the dark forest, Harry is the only one who truly knows what happened there, but the horcrux in him was destroyed. In a final dual with Voldemort when all of his Horcruxes were destroyed Harry killed him. Are there any questions?"

"What are Horcruxes?" Fred asked.

"Horcruxes are objects that contain the soul of someone who used the blood of another to seal his soul in the object. While part of your soul is alive you cannot be killed in your body. To destroy a Horcrux you must destroy the object, fiend fire and basilisk blood work, as does Avada Kadavra if it is a human or animal that is the horcrux."

No one raised a hand or spoke out with a question so Ron moved on, "And now for the test, ten easy questions, you have to get eight to pass." With a casual flick of his wand one of the stacks of paper distributed itself to the people in the room. After about ten minutes Ron stopped them and collected the parchment and told them to wait for the next person.

It was less than five minutes before the door open again, this time a woman came in. She was a bit shorter than Ron and her wavy brown hair hung down nearly to her waist, she wore a similar cloak to Ron, only hers was a deep blue. Brushing her hair out of her fast she began talking briskly, "My name is Hermione Gra-, Hermione Weasley, Ron is my husband." She reminded herself, "My job is to teach you about the changes made after the second war, there will be a twenty question test, you will be able to miss only three."

"The minister since the war has been Kingsley Shacklebolt, who in most people's opinion is better than the previous three. Then again, he is the only one who has a brain and isn't being controlled by Voldemort (several people chuckled to her surprise). He and Harry have both put forth tremendous effort to fix what Voldemort destroyed. They actually invented this program so you guys didn't end up dying again."

"Several other things have been changed, most noticeable is that Azkaban is no longer guarded by dementors. Dementors have been deemed inhumane, even for law breakers. Most have been destroyed so only a handful remain. Also, the headmaster of Hogwarts must be decided by the Wizengamont, which now has just thirty people on the committee and is overseen by Kinsley who votes only in case of ties. Current Hogwarts headmaster is Minerva McGonagall, and her assistant in Percy Weasley who is the official in charge of learning quality."

"The last change has to do with the auror department of the ministry. Aurors now act separately from the ministry, and are controlled by Harry potter. Kingsley can give suggestions, but not make any decisions for the Aurors. Your first six months as an Auror you are put with an Auror with seniority, after the six months Harry himself decides whether you would be an asset to the department."

"Some additions are the Conservation of Magical Beings department, which protects the rights of goblins, dragons, all magical animals and house elves. This was a result of heavy abuse of house elves and goblins during the second war, house elves have even been removed from homes they are unwelcome in. Another additions is the Blood-Law, in this law it states you can be jailed for threatening or prejudicing half bloods and mudbloods. Now for the test." She flicked her wand gracefully passing out the tests. She left with their tests soon.

As Hermione left another woman came in, she was shorter than Hermione with long blonde hair that had been pulled back into a ponytail. She seemed a bit spacey, "My name is Luna Lovegood, I am the editor of the Quibbler. I came to share about some new discoveries. And relax, there is no test."

"A few of our discoveries include a new use for dragon blood, also that dragons prefer not being killed and the fangs on most breeds carry a heavy sedative. Also, that the ability to speak parseltongue is controlled by a liquid in a snake's throat, we discovered this by examining a dead basilisk."

"Our biggest discovery has been a charm that reverses the effects of being a werewolf. If worn during the full moon it will either give the wearer control or completely stop the transformation altogether. It is a simple mix of wolfbane, asphdolf root, and wormwood, in a silver pod you wear around your neck. They were in need once Fenrir Greyback's pack decided to avenge his death, most of his pack has been killed. Thank you for listening." Luna said quickly, though she didn't notice Remus was beaming. She left with the same spacey look she had carried in and had held throughout her speech.

After she left no one came in for nearly twenty minutes, in which they mostly talked about how Harry had been before the second war, though mainly it was Sirius and Remus who told James and lily about Peter's treason and Harry's third year. Finally the door opened, and Hagrid walked through pulling a covered cage to the open space at the front of the room. When he had finished he looked up, "Sorry I was late, but the ministry thou' I was up ta somthin' because of th' cage. Anyway, I supposed ta teach ya about the new magical creatures that be dangerous."

He kind of gave a shrug, "There's really only one. Smarter tha' sphinxes, deadlier tha' dragons, faster tha' a grindylow, ministry considers 'em ta be the most dangerous creature. They're actually no tha' bad, cute actually." Fred, the small boy and several of the others who knew Hagrid's idea of cute groaned.

Hagrid ignored them, "They be shinxes." He lifted the blanket off the fair sized cage to reveal a ball of fur, seemingly a black puddle until two grey eyes blinked open. Below the eyes large jaws yawned and the limbs of the creature stretched out from it's tight knit ball. It looked like a simple large feline, large being a huge understatement of the pearly white teeth and claws. Hagrid gently asked something of the creature, in return the creature's back began to shift, the sides pulling away from the body until they formed dragon-like wings that were nearly six feet wide, stretching outside of the cage.

"Shinxes are flyin' felines. They're solitary creatures usually, but are loyal and very protective of anythin' they consider ta be theirs. They are known to be vicious, but what really scares most is they're shape shifters, than can look like any kind of cat, from jaguars, panthers and tigers to house cats." As if on command the cat lost it's wings, became a bit smaller and white stripes covered it's body.

"No matter what shape they take they're balck wit' white markings. This makes keeping track of them nearly impossible, as well as knowin' how many of the critters there are. She turned to a tiger 'cause she's shy, there ya go girl, back to yer true form. Now she wants to meet ye all." Without warning he opened the cage, the black creature walked out gracefully.

The shinx moved towards the marauders who were blocked in by others, and could only stand back. The shinx curled up it's wings trying to calm them, then rubbed against their legs, then it went back, sat at Lily's feet, turned into a house cat and meowed. Lily was shocked, but picked the shinx anyways and began stroking it. Hagrid chuckled, "Now I know where Harry got his appeal to shinxes, Truffles likes him too."

"Truffles?" Lily said questioningly feeling overly sharp claws rest against her skin.

"That's her name," Hafrid answered as the shinx, Truffles, jumped from Lily's arms and sat at Hagrid's feet yowling. He ushered her back in the cage, "Sorry ta leave so soon, but she's hungry and when shinxes are hungry they've been known to-"

"Kill people." Remus finished as Hagrid covered the cage, Hagrid nodded slightly. He left muttering about how the creatures were actually quite gentle.

This pause between presentations was longer than the rest; after half an hour they were joking the final test was one of their patience. Finally Kingsley walked in looking rushed and pointed his wand at books that were scattered around the room which floated to the desks. Moody spoke, "So you're the one teaching us the last part?"

Kingsley shook his head, "No, it's defense against the dark arts. Harry claims that it falls in his jurisdiction so he sent one of his best aurors. This part takes forever to go over so all of the orientations are running late. He should be here soon though."

"You don't know who he sent?" Dora asked.

"I've seen him, but I don't know who he is. Probably some weirdo kid from Durmstang he decided was good enough." Kingsley replied exasperated.

"You don't seem fond of Harry." Remus said softly.

Kingsley stopped moving a minute mulling over the right words, "We just disagree on a lot of things. The mild hatred is a mutual feeling. Then again, when has Harry ever agreed with the Minister of Magic. He says the job poisons the mind. Anyway, the auror should be here soon." With that he left.

They looked at the books on their desks, the title read thus: _A Ministry Approved Guide to the Defense Against Dark Arts_ by Hannah Abbot. The door opened abruptly to reveal the man who had stopped James and Snape's fight. They got a better look at him, his eyes were focused, steely grey, and showed no emotion. His black hair had been retied so it didn't cover his forehead and looked a little more neat. They noticed something new, he had been in a fight.

His already scarred hands had new scabs on them, another scab was on his left cheek bone. Blood shone from his lip as well, it had been bleeding not half an hour before. With a tired expression he lifted his right hand and the young boy who was sitting closest to the door watched his book fly to the man's hands. He shook his head, "I don't know how people think they can learn Defense from books. Let's just get rid of these." His voice was warm to a degree.

He raised his right hand again, this time every book jumped to the air, they flew over to a corner of the room and dropped in a pile in an unceremonious way. He walked to the front of the room and opened his mouth to speak when Snape interrupted, "I don't see why we're needed to be taught about Defense Against the Dark Arts, we were all either Aurors, in the Order, or a teacher on the subject."

"Or in the D.A." The young boy piped in.

"What's the D.A." James asked.

"The D.A. was an organization started at Hogwarts by Harry Potter. The ministry was afraid that Dumbledore was creating a student army, so they gave the Minister something to worry about. The D.A. also did a major part in the final battle, where several members including Fred and Colin here." He motioned towards the boys who beamed with pride.

Sirius looked at him, "I think you're proving our point."

"We already know all there is to know." James added glaring at the man.

The man's smoky eyes met James' charcoal ones, he contemplated a minute, "You are James Potter, right?" James nodded, "Well, if you all feel you know everything there is to know let's have a quick oral quiz, afterwards you decide if you want me to teach you or not before the test. And on this test you can get one out of the twenty questions wrong."

The group gave a general nod of arrogant agreement, "Okay James, since you think you know so much, list the unforgivable curses."

James laughed and broke into the marauder grin, "Easy, Imperious, cruciatus and Avada Kadavra." The room was full of people chuckling at the simple question.

The man was waiting silently, finally he spoke, "And?"

The room grew silent, James looked confused, "I said all three of them."

"There's four now." The man said poker-faced, "Next Question, Moody, what are the three reasons we still use corporeal Patronuses if Dementors aren't a threat?"

Moody answered instantly, "Communication, Identification and…" He stopped, looking confused, "I don't know of a third."

"Next, Remus, who are the three were wolves that have tried to take Fenrir's place since his death?" The man was now smiling as he was proved right.

Remus looked baffled, "Fenrir is dead?"

"Okay, does anyone know the first spell that was purposely performed without a wand?" Everyone shook their heads, "How about the name of the first Auror to be a vampire?"

"Just stop." James said, "Obviously we don't know anything about your questions."

"That's because a lot can happen in seven years. The Dark Arts are forever changing, so the defense against them must change constantly as well. Let's take how you guys died." He pointed to Collin, "You wanted to help save the world so badly you didn't even consider you were in over your head. Fred was distracted by a truly remarkable thing, his brother made a joke. Moody was killed thanks to another's cowardice, and thinking the enemy could never guess his plan. Remus and Dora, overpowered by the Dark Arts."

He moved along the front of the room as he talked, "Lily and James, assumed they were safe when their best friend betrayed them to Voldemort. Sirius, fell into a veil while distracted. Dumbledore died of his own selfishness." They all stared at him as he stood in the direct front, "The only death in here that was heroic was that of Severus Snape who was a double agent for the Order for nearly seventeen years and gave his life to ensure Harry had the chance to kill Voldemort. And you'll all die again if you don't know what I have to tell you."

The room was silent, the man continued, "Three years ago Harry Potter discovered how to use your dominant hand to focus spells through rather than wands. Although not every spell can be done wandless, a great many can along with a few that can only be done without a wand. The first spell he used was accio, though it is best used with very small objects such as books, pencils, parchment and potion ingredients, it was intended to bring your wand to you. You cannot not do wandless spells silently though."

"Expelliarmus and incendio are often used wandless, and Aurors have to be able to perform those three spells wandless along with a stunning spell, a flare, both red and green, and Titiglio. Which leads to the nest thing, Titiglio is a three year old spell, also of Potter's creation and is used wandless. It works with corporal patronuses, the spell is used to knock people off their feet in pursuit or used in a crowded place to ensure safety, or to tell the identity of a person. Titiglio will not work on wizards with a corporal patronus, the patronuses shape will stand between you and the spell."

"The most recent of Potter's creation is one he has said to be ashamed of, it is the fourth unforgivable curse. It is called Death Rings, it is performed wandless, each of your fingers controls a ring of fire around your enemy's body brought by saying Kalen. Pinky controls ankles, ring finger is legs, middle is waist and hands, pointer is arms and chest, thumb is the throat. by saying another word partially in parseltounge and closing the fist you cause the rings to shrink into balls. I will demonstrate."

He made a movement with his hand and the mannequin moved to the front where everyone could see. He held his right hand vertical as if against a wall and whispered, "Kalen." Five rings of fire appeared around the mannequin, he curled each finger experimentally watching the circles throb. When he was satisfied he hissed a word sounding like 'Queesh' and slowly closed his hand. The circles shrank until they cut the mannequin into sixths. He released the spell and used reparo to fix the mannequin. The entire room was wide eyed.

The man looked back to the group, "It's not fun to watch happen to a mannequin, but watching a human go that was is torturous. They die slowly screaming the entire time, and when cut they bleed and pour out guts, it's a bloody mess. The sight will burn your eyes, it can even make them bleed. You will not be taught to perform this, just to recognize it. There is no way to avoid the curse."

"To get to the business of werewolves, Fenrir Greyback who attacked many young wizards and muggles alike was killed during the final battle of the second war. His death caused two things to happen. Nearly half of his followers claimed they were only with him out of fear and have become good citizens. The others have continued their ways, but have not chosen a leader like Fenrir was. The three fighting for the title who have become increasingly dangerous have taken more wolfish names and are Bloodclaw McKinnon, Grislefang Goyle, and Scourge. The Magical Creatures Department has decided that werewolves are now the Aurors' jurisdiction."

"Since the Auror department separated from the Ministry it has had a greater diversity of workers around the world. Vampires have even been brought in as spies, the first of which being Gregor Truve. We even now have several werewolves in the department, which has made being a werewolf socially acceptable. And if I recall correctly the Astronomy teacher at Hogwarts and the Potions teacher at Durmstrang are werewolves."

"Animagi no longer have to be registered with the Ministry, mostly because they found out last year nine Aurors, twelve ministry workers and fourteen other wizards were unregistered and decided there was no point in even trying to keep track. However, you can be fired for not telling your department boss if you're an animagus and your form."

"Well, that's it, any questions?" The man looked around.

Lily waited to be called on, "Is the curse of the Hogwarts Defense Against the Dark Arts job still in effect?"

He nodded, "Yeah, Frank Longbottom who recently recovered from insanity with his wife is the current teacher. Fred?"

"Is Grislefang the same Goyle that we went to school with?" Fred asked.

"Yes, and Draco thought the Weasley's were the wrong crowd." The man rolled his eyes, "Any others?"

"You weren't hurt earlier, how come you are now?" Remus asked.

"I had to go to the Malfoys where fifteen dark wizards and three goblins came back to life. Since there was only three of us we could only capture two of them. It will probably be bad later on," He said grimly.

"What's your name?" James inquired.

As the man went to reply the door opened revealing Kingsley who called, "Ron says the thirteen deatheaters have been spotted. I'll test them." And with that the mysterious man left and they all passed their tests, except Bob Schmarmy, an Irish wizard who spent the entire time peeling and eating a raw potato.

Do you know who the mysterious man is? Send guesses in your replies. Until next time, Lemonbomber out yo.


	4. The ACTUAL chapter 3

A/N: Wondering where Harry was in chapter was in Chapter two? Well, here he is in chapter three. It's all about him, deal with it. As for your guesses to the Mysterious man, I don't think I've gotten a right guess yet. Unfortunately, no clues in this chapter.

Disclaimer: Harry Potter no es de mi, which is Spanish for I don't own Harry Potter. It would be more fun to type it in German…

"Don't pretend you aren't nervous about meeting them." Ginny's voice was even, with anyone else he could have pretended he was calm, but she knew him too well.

"I am nervous, but then again, I'm meeting my parents for the first time." Harry replied. He had been trying to forget that they would be coming back today, along with his godfather, Remus, Nymphadora, Moody, Fred, Dumbledore… the list went on.

Ginny touched his shoulder, "You've faced some of the greatest dangers of the world, trolls, dragons, dark lords, a pregnant wife…" She was pleased to see him smile, "I'm sure you can handle meeting people you saw died. You're parents probably won't even recognize you."

His eyes lit up, "Thanks for the idea, I gotta go. Bye." He kissed her quickly and left throwing on his black work robes.

Ginny shrugged, she had no clue what he was talking about, but he'd tell her about it later.

Harry had a list of all his Aurors and some volunteers, mainly from the Order and D.A., and was putting groups together writing in places to make the day somewhat more organized. He finished as Ron walked in, he looked up as his best friend said, "We're all here, and ready when you are."

"I'm finished." He pulled himself from his office chair carrying his list and walked with Ron to the main room. Over a hundred qualified had volunteered, he recognized several people instantly, a large group of redheads was the Weasley family, who had all volunteered except for Fluer, she took care of Victoire and Teddy. He also saw Neville, Ron, Hermione and Luna talking in a close group. Headmaster McGonagall, Hagrid, and Flitwick talked with Frank and Alice Longbottom.

They all seemed to notice when he was at the head of the room and fell silent. It was time fore his speech, "Morning, as you all know we are here to help gather up the RD's, the Recently Deceased, and bringing them to the Ministry in attempt to help them. I'm going to have everyone split into groups to cover as many places as possible. When I call your name stand over here and apparate to your location or close by and monitor it."

"First group, Cho Chang and Ernie MacMillan, you are at the Riddle's graveyard. Hermione Weasley and Luna Lovegood, Department of Mysteries. Bill, Charlie and Percy Weasley, the area around Privet drive where Moody died. Ron Weasley and Neville Longbottom, Godric's Hallow," People seemed surprised he had chosen not to accompany them to greet his parents, but he continued naming of places, several were in Albania.

"And Ted and Andromeda Tonks, I would like you to patrol the Malfoy Manor- alert Ron or me by Patronus if _anyone_ comes back." With a nod they left, he looked at the people remaining, "You will be stationed at various parts of Hogwarts, George Weasley and Lee Jordan, the staircases. Frank and Alice Longbottom, the astronomy tower. Hagrid and Flitwick, the Dark Forest. McGonagall and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, the Entrance and Great Hall. The rest I would like to spread themselves among the school grounds."

They had all left when he faced what he had written for him to do, greet Severus Snape. He really didn't want to, but he was probably just about the only one who wouldn't think of him as a deatheater. People had told him had changed a lot since seventh year, now he hoped they were right so Snape wouldn't recognize him. He apparated directly to the shrieking shack and sat on the bed to wait… for all of three seconds.

On top of the round blood stain on the floor from his death, Snape appeared lying face down on the floor, the spots where he was bitten still scabbed over. He sat up slowly, facing away from Harry and not noticing his presence, as he did so the scabs faded into nothing. He rubbed his greasy head looking confused, "What is going on?" he whispered.

"You've come back to life." Harry said softly as he watched Snape jump and reach for his wand, "Don't bother, the Ministry has your wand."

Snape realized he was right and looked at him, "Who do you think you are?"

"It doesn't matter." Harry said, Snape didn't recognize him, "How does it feel to be alive after being dead seven years?"

"Are you saying I was dead?" Snape seemed scared, which made Harry laugh on the inside.

"Voldemort's snake bit you, apparently she's venomous. And all the people killed by Voldemort and his followers are coming back, Dumbledore might comeback to since you were in Voldie's inner circle. Something about the way Voldemort was defeated."

His memory seemed to come back as he sat up and pulled himself to his feet. He looked at Harry with disgust, "So now what?"

"I escort you to the ministry where you will go through an orientation about the world today and then be released into the world. We'll use side-along apparition," Harry said standing up forgetting he never had bothered to get his apparition license, then again, what could Kinsley do to him?

Severus scowled but put his hand on Harry's shoulder, Harry apparated immediately after his old teacher touched him. They appeared in a small room with a door on either side, Harry told him to stay there and left the room. He shook his head, if Snape didn't recognize him he must have changed more than he thought, but that had been the plan at the time.

Harry had been told to go to Ron before most of the orientations had started, several of the other aurors were there too, waiting for Harry. The deatheaters from the Malfoy Manor had come back to life and weren't going to come to the ministry willingly, "Come on, let's go." Harry said. The four he had picked to come with him as back up had been chosen carefully for their success rate and ability to keep innocent people safe. They had all been told how this should be taken care of.

Three of the aurors left immediately, Ron took Harry's hand and apparated with him to the middle of the Malfoy Manor, where the duel was already taking place. He quickly took count of who all was there, his four aurors, Ted and Andromeda, fifteen deatheaters,

three goblins and four people trying to hide in the corner. He sighed, how many times was he going to have to save Malfoy's life, he motioned to the Tonks to get the Malfoys to safety and then joined in the fight, outnumbered three to one.

"They really weren't happy to see you changed sides, were they?" Harry asked his long time enemy in a joking manor.

Draco glared at him, he didn't look half as pompous as he did as a teenager, but he had the pride of the high ranking ministry official in the Department of Mysteries he had become, "They tried to kill my family, and look what they did to the house." He motioned to the main room of the house that had furniture destroyed and was tossed about in a far from regal way.

Harry opened his mouth to talk, but Draco cut him off, "Oh well, we'll clean it up, it's not like we can't afford it."

"Small price to pay for you and your families lives." He motioned towards Narcissa, Lucious and Draco's wife Pansy, "This is what, the third time I've saved your life?"

Draco rolled his eyes, "Thanks, is there something I can do for you in return?" He didn't seem to mean it at all.

"Stop putting yourself in the position to get killed." Harry said in the taunting way that had always annoyed Malfoy.

Draco flushed, "Don't make me break our truce Potter." They had agreed a couple years before to stop their quarreling for good as long as they agreed to not be friends either.

Harry was not bothered by this, "You think you could take me Malfoy?"

Draco gave up, just as Harry knew he would and Harry left saying, "I'd love to stay, but I have to help out with the Recently Deceased." There was a small pop and he was gone.

Well, that's how Harry's day went, more or less. Next chapter we're back to the Marauders. Once again, replies are always welcome.


	5. chapter 4

Author's Note: Well, this is what happens after chapter two. Unfortunately, I am not going to tell you who the Mysterious Man is… yet. Though this will make one person unable to be him, and there's Kreacher! (My favorite house elf) So Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, unless I decide to rename my cat Harry Potter… then again, no.

After passing the Defense Against Dark Arts tests they were taken to another waiting room that already had nearly fifty wizards in it already. Sirius groaned, "More waiting?" Kingsley nodded sympathetically.

"Sorry, but there's only six aurors Harry approved to assess people, and three of them are gone without explanation, two of which were doing orientation at the time," Kingsley said frustrated, "So because of him we only have three wizards at a time passing. If I were you, I'd get comfortable. Sorry, but I have to leave."

They watched an auror walk out into the waiting room, "Cederic Diggory."

"Finally, I've been here two hours." A young man near them said standing stiffly and sauntering over to the auror and they disappeared into a room. This exasperated the new comers immensely, they all kind of slumped to the floor because the waiting room wasn't equipped for this many people. After half an hour only three more people had been called by the aurors.

At that time two more aurors came in, Ron and another person they hadn't seen yet. They each went into one of the rooms like those that the other aurors were in. After a minute or two each came out and called a name. Ten minutes later a third Auror they recognized as the Mysterious Man walked in the room and opened a door very close to the main door. He didn't close his door as he picked up a huge stack of files, he took one look at it and said loudly, "One by one, this is ridiculous." He magically pulled a few files from the stack and stepped to the doorway of the office.

"Can I get James and Lily Potter, Remus and Nymphadora Lupin, and Sirius and Regulus Black." The five stood up and filed in a bit shocked, but the didn't see the sixth called. Finally the Mysterious Man yelled, "We don't have all day Black!" The sixth finally came in the room, the Man closed the door behind him.

"Aren't you supposed to call us in one by one?" Remus asked ignoring Sirius glaring across him to his little brother on the other side of him.

The Man rolled his eyes, "Technically, but I have to see thirty-nine wizards, forty-seven muggles, seven goblins, and three house elves, I don't have the patience to go one by one." He was now staring at Sirius, "Are you going to try to kill him?"

Sirius looked up, "Why did you bring this traitor in here with us?"

"I thought it would be safer than bringing in Severus, though perhaps I was wrong, besides, I don't think anyone in here is evil or traitorous. But I'll let the Veritaserum decide that." He waved his hand and six cups filled with pumpkin juice floated over to them. They all drank theirs, though Regulus hesitated.

The Man spread the eight files on the desk and began writing furiously on several and asked relatively easy questions, such as how long they worked for the order, how they died, even though he already knew, and some more general questions, though none were for Regulus. Finally he sent the other five's files to them for them to check and sign.

"Now for Regulus Arcturus Black, Slytherin seeker if I recall?" Regulus nodded, "And you were a deatheater from age sixteen to your death at nineteen?"

The black haired boy, who like the rest looked the same as he did at death, nodded sadly. Even Sirius couldn't ignore that he was regretting it. The Man wrote some things down on his file, then looked at him again, "And you were unquestioningly loyal to him, even loaned your family's house elf to Voldemort?" Regulus flinched at the name, but nodded again.

"And you were killed on Voldemort's orders because you got into deep?" The Man asked in a flat tone.

"Of coarse he was." Sirius said before Regulus answered, "He joined when he was sixteen, he was too stupid to know what he was getting into."

"Voldemort didn't order me dead!" Regulus yelled at his brother.

"Liar." Sirius snapped back at him.

"He can't lie, he drank the truth potion." The Man said quietly, "You died on our side, didn't you."

Regulus nodded, "I was in his inner circle, when I heard who all he was planning to kill I knew I couldn't continue to help. He didn't know I knew about his secret, and I knew if he knew I wouldn't have lived to be nineteen. I stole his horcrux even though it killed me and gave it to Kreacher to destroy. I never knew there was seven." His voice was full of regret.

"Still think he's a traitor?" The Man asked Sirius.

"No, but I still think he's a stupid git." Sirius replied.

The Man sent Regulus his file as he sighed, "Ah, sibling rivalry." After Regulus signed he summoned the files back signing them quickly and putting them in a file. "Now I'm supposed to help you with jobs, you five all said you wanted to continue being aurors, so I have signed you up for that program. As for Regulus, you will have to go through a program to ensure you are no longer evil, then you will be assessed for talents and how to put them to use. You will all receive letters in a week or two to explain where to go. Have a nice day." He pointed towards a door opposite the one they entered.

Just as they were leaving Sirius asked quickly, "What is your name?" At the same time an otter shaped patronus swam to the Man and said in a girl's voice, "You need to come talk to Grindelwald- Now!" Then it disappeared.

"Sorry, got to go!" He slid past them and jogged up a staircase that was marked with an authorized personnel only sign. As they finally left the room the two Blacks talked quietly to each other, and when the others looked at them questioningly they explained that they had decided they wanted the four of them to stay at the House of Black.

"Sirius!" A girl said jogging up to them, it was Luna, "If you plan to go to the House of Black you should know how to get past the safety measures that have been up for the past seven years. First is the Tongue-tying curse, but that will wear off since you aren't Snape. Then there's something that will look like Dumbledore, you need to say 'I didn't kill you'. Oh, and Harry wanted you to have Regulus go in first because Kreacher's gone a bit senile and is least likely to hurt him."

Sirius huffed, "Figures, he's always loved Reggie. Anything else?"

She thought a moment, "Oh, right!" She pulled a small letter out of her pocket, Harry put a new Fidelius Charm on it because the old one had been shattered, Kreacher is the new keeper and can't invite anyone he isn't ordered to, so you all will need to read this. And Kreacher has had a bit of an attitude adjustment, and will be happy to see just about anyone because he's been alone for seven years."

Sirius seemed shocked, "You mean he hasn't been at Grimauld Place?"

"Not since he was taking refuge there while planning to infiltrate the Ministry. Ginny tried to explain it to me as him feeling uncomfortable there, he blames himself for every death during the second war, and almost entirely for Sirius' death. Sorry, but I have to go." Luna said softly and headed for the door.

"Well, Harry sure seems to be overly critical to himself, among other things." Lily said as they passed the note around.

"I feel bad he blames himself for my death, it wasn't his fault." Sirius said mostly to himself.

"He always did, he scared quite a few people after you died, tried to kill Bellatrix, but she escaped and he ran into Voldemort." Remus said, it didn't make Sirius feel any better about it.

The dark entry way of Number 13 Grimauld Place had been easy enough to find, and by following Luna's directions they got past the traps. As they got past the fake Dumbledore the heard a small voice yell, "Master Regulus!" This was soon followed by a small form wrapping itself around Regulus' leg.

"Hi Kreacher." Regulus said in reply, noticing that kreacher almost looked younger than he had at his death. He at least looked happier.

"Come Masters!" The house elf urged them all while pulling Regulus' leg, "I have made food for Masters. Potter told me you would be here."

He lead them into the diningroom where Sirius, Regulus, Remus, Dora and James (Lily had never been there before) noticed two things that were very unusual. First was the food, there was enough to call it a small feast, and it looked good, and they had never really heard of Kreacher cooking before. Second was the fact it was clean, and in the past it hadn't been uncommon to find a layer of dust and cobwebs on every surface. They were very confused to see this, but Regulus caught on when he saw his fake locket around the elf's neck.

He told the others what he thought had happened and they agreed it was likely given as a way of recognizing he wasn't worthless given by Harry. After eating the surprisingly good food Kreacher made they looked around the house to find everywhere was the same scary cleaness of the dining area. When they went upstairs they saw that the doors had names on them, Sirius and Regulus had the same rooms they always had had, and two doors had the Lupins and Potters on wood planks nailed to the door. They were confused as to how Kreacher knew more than just the Blacks were going to live there.

"Harry Potter said you would a week ago." Was his reply.

"He was here?" James asked.

"No, he sent his friend's owl, Pig." Sirius laughed at his gift to Ron after third year to compensate for his pet being a deatheater. They went to bed soon after.

A/N: Yes I have shortened the Mysterious Man to just the Man. As you can see he is NOT Regulus, so is you have any other ideas please put them in your reply, I like seeing what I'm making you think.


	6. Letters

Thanks for all the reviews, I'm on winter break so I hope to have at least written two chapters after this one before I'm back in school. Just to answer a couple quick questions from the reviews, I hadn't planned on much Snape being in this. As for Harry and Ginny having any of their kids, their son James will be turning one in about a month. As to what to look forward in this chapter, a character coming back to life, and an… unusual love story.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter…

They wouldn't have their wands for about a week, Ron had told Lily and James while leaving Godric's Hallow, Hermione and Luna had told Sirius, several kids- people from the D.A. had told the Lupins, and the mysterious man had told Regulus when he had appeared the night before. Then again, with Kreacher being almost scarily helpful, they didn't really need them. For the most part they talked, usually about Regulus or Harry. Regulus hadn't been sure when he died, but they figured it was shortly before the Potters had, and Sirius still refused to like Regulus, but had stopped calling him a traitor all the same.

Harry wasn't so easy to talk about, no one had seen him in seven years. Lily and James were told everything they did know about Harry, though it was knowledge from when he was twelve to pretty much sixteen. "So he never said anything about living with my sister?" Lily asked.

Sirius thought for a few minutes, "No, other than he pretty much hated it there, never gave much of a reason. Did hear a story about the Weasley twins and Ron breaking iron bars off of his windows to rescue him second year, and before his third year he ran away to Diagon Alley. But he never really said anything specific." The Potters looked slightly disappointed, but said nothing.

There was a light tapping noise on the window in the livingroom, Regulus called that it was an owl and they heard the window creak open. An owl fluttered in the room and landed on Sirius' shoulder, Sirius soon realized that it was his Godson's owl Hedwig. He stroked her head with a smile as Remus took two letters from the snow white owl. James whispered something quietly to Lily, "Either we're missing something, or Padfoot's in love."

Sirius looked up shocked, and the other four in the room started laughing, Regulus only smiled remembering his brother's temper all too well. Hedwig and Sirius seemed to process what James had said at the same time, Hedwig flew of Sirius' shoulder to perch on an empty chair looking insulted. Sirius rashly said something, "We're just friends!" This didn't help him at all, in fact, everyone started laughing harder.

"That didn't come out right…" Sirius sighed.

"We'd all hope so." Lily said.

"I meant to say that I've met Hedwig because she is Harry's owl." Sirius was regretting saying anything in the first place.

Finally Remus looked at the two letters, he handed one to Regulus and began opening the other one, "It's for all five of us, looks like Harry's writing too." James and Lily both glanced at the writing on the envelope which faintly resembled Lily's. Remus put the letter in the middle of the group so they could read it over each other's shoulders in a small group.

_Dear James Potter, Lily Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Nymphadora Lupin,_

_I am pleased to inform you that you have all passed background checks and have been cleared to become Aurors, though will be on probation until shortly before Christmas. I ask that you arrive at a quarter to nine on 3 July in the lobby at the Ministry of Magic. You will be greeted by several senior Aurors who will be your superiors during your probation. They will be they ones to judge whether you become an Auror or not. Please send a reply with the owl, Hedwig, saying wether you would like to accept the offer._

_On a more personal note, I am glad to see that all five of you have returned. Sirius, I doubt that even you wouldn't have noticed Kreacher's attitude change, I admit it was my fault. By the way, I kind of promised he could.. fatally injure Mundungus if he ever sees him, it's best you don't get in the way. Remus and.. I always called you Tonks, not sure what to call you now.. anyway, Ted and Andromeda would like to invite you to their house tomorrow, the thirtieth, for tea and to pick up Teddy. And for my parents, I hope to see you soon… though it may be before you see me. There's a reason I'm not dead, I don't make it easy to find me._

_I wish you all luck,_

_Harry J. Potter, _

_Head of Aurors and DE Rehabilitation_

They were quiet a few minutes after reading the letter, Sirius spoke first, "At least he still has a sense of humor."

"Trust me, he wasn't kidding when he said it isn't easy to find him." Remus mused.

"He had the entire magical world looking for him for nine months, and those who saw him didn't know it was him." Nymphadora explained.

"We're all up for it, right?" Lily asked noticing Kreacher had already brought parchment, ink and a quill. They all nodded and they together wrote a response to Harry.

"You're kidding me." Regulus said looking at his letter in disgust causing them to look up from their joint reply. He looked as if he had said something wrong and came up with another answer than the truth, "I have to go to a rehab group, it lists some of the other people, Grindelwald and Snape."

They knew he wasn't telling the truth, but they decided it wasn't important enough to press, so they continued as Regulus threw his letter in the fire.

"Oh, great." Harry said sarcastically as he watched Hedwig fly through the window, carrying a large roll of parchment, and there was no surprise as to who it was from. Ginny walked over, "Need me to take Jameson?"

Harry rolled his eyes, "Yes, it would be helpful for you to take _Jay_," Ginny wanted to argue, but knew her husband would never call him by his whole name, so she let it go. She took her son from his father where he had fallen asleep not ten minutes ago, she left the room to put him in his crib before he woke up.

Harry had busied himself opening the letter from the Marauders and family and prepared himself for a long letter. He laughed when he saw five different writing styles on the parchment, starting with his godfather's.

_Dear Harry James Potter, _(he knew they were trying to make fun of him)

_To start, I've never backed away from a challenge, so I'm more than ready to become an auror, again. And for your information, I noticed Kreacher's change in behavior fairly quickly, I don't know what this 'I doubt even you wouldn't have noticed' crap. And how did you know we would all choose to live at Grimauld Place? And please stop blaming yourself for my death, it wasn't your fault._

(The writing now changed to Remus')

_I also accept the offer. I talked to James about what happened at Grimauld Place before you infiltrated the Ministry during the second war. He agreed with your view and gave a very similar lecture to yours_ (Harry smiled)_. I trust you have been a good godfather to Teddy the past seven years, though hopefully not nearly as reckless as Sirius was. _(The last sentence was Sirius' writing) _I was NOT reckless! _(It changed to what could only have been James) _Yeah right, Padfoot not being reckless. Is this some alternate universe? _(It changed to Lily's familiar script)_ Let's move on, we're grfiti-ing his letter._

(The writing was now Nymphadora's)

_Wotcher, Harry! I had just become an Auror when I died, and I intend to continue now that I'm back. Thank you for telling us when to get Teddy, I can't wait to see him! As for my name, people, namely my husband, have started calling me Dora, and though I'm not completely fond of it, it's better than my full name._

(It was now James' turn)

_More than happy to take up your offer. Though I do hope I don't have to spend too much time with that man from orientation and who did our forms. We're all on a mutual agreement that he's a bit creepy. And he felt the need to embarrass all the ex-aurors during orientation. Either way, I hope to see you soon, though I doubt you are as hard to find as you might think, Marauders tend to get into all kinds of things, and you'll have three looking for you._

(Lily wrote the last part)

_Don't think I'd let them have all the fun, I'm going to come too. I'm a bit concerned how we know nothing about your time at my sister's, are they still at Privet Drive? I don't know how you lived that night, and no one's been able to tell me. James and I have been wondering if you could tell us about yourself. _

_We all love you Harry,_

_Lily, James, Dora, Remus & Sirius_

"Harry James Potter, what are you laughing at?" Ginny demanded, he hadn't noticed he had begun laughing so hard.

He passed her the note to read as he made a few comments, "They had an argument in the letter, only they could have done that. And Sirius is overlooking the fact that I caused _all_ of their deaths. And they aren't going to be happy when they figure out who the creepy mysterious man is." He gave a grin that the two had seen Sirius and James wear in so many pictures.

A/N: Only one person guessed who the Mysterious Man is in reviewing, Nosi, so props to them. Harry is the Man, though the Marauders don't know.

No, Kreacher isn't dead, (bangs head against wall), and Sirius mainly just doesn't like Reggie because they're siblings… Surprise!

I hope that knowing that Harry is the Man will make this a bit funnier to you! Please review!


	7. chapter 6

Author's Note: I noticed in reviews for the last chapter you are questioning Harry's appearance, well, you'll find out when Harry explains it to James, Lily, etc.

Disclaimer: Don't own Harry Potter

_Dear Regulus Black,_

_You have not been completely cleared of a deatheater related offenses, though I believe I have proved you did more enough to help. I regret to say Kreacher could not destroy the first of the seven horcruxes, but he helped it be found. The ministry has allowed letting you and several other double agent wizards go through a rehab like program to ensure you are safe for the public, your group includes Grindelwald, Severus Snape and a few others. It starts 3 July at the Hog's Head in Hogsmeade, either go by floo, or be dragged to Azkaban, your choice._

_By the way I want to ask a favor of you. I am the one who did your file work today and has probably annoyed your brother and his friends. Please keep my identity a secret._

_Harry James Potter,_

_Head of Aurors and DE Rehabilitation_

Regulus had briefly read it, barely absorbing the content, but the second paragraph caught his attention strangely. Blocking everything out of his mind he read the letter three more times with meticulous care. The man who cleared his name was hiding from his family? And after forcing me back to mine, the _nerve!_ Not only this but he trusted him to keep his secret from everyone he currently lived with. Without even thinking he blurted out, "You're kidding me."

It was only when he heard them all look at him he realized what he'd done. He hurried to find some other excuse why he would be upset with the letter and lied about his fellow group members. He was obviously lying, he had never been talented at it, but they left him alone about it. _You better thank me for this Potter_ he thought as he threw the proof of Harry's identity into the fire to avoid further mistake.

The Marauders had hoped to get a long letter from Harry, but received few short lines, an article, and several pictures instead. The letter read:

_Dear Moony, Padfoot, Prongs, Lily and Dora,_

_Thank you for the letter, and I didn't really mind the graffiti._

_You wanted to know more about me, here's some pictures that might help._

_Sorry none of the pictures are recent, but I'm in hiding. It's complicated._

_Harry Potter_

"Gets right to the point, doesn't he?" Lily said softly.

"Four sentences, and after we send him five paragraphs and an argument." Dora said exasperated. They all moved on to the article that had a picture attached, they passed around the picture as Remus read the article aloud,

"'On 2 April 2000, Ginevra Weasley, better known as Ginny, broke a record, she was the youngest witch in thirty-nine years to be on a professional team. At the age of just barely nineteen she tried out for and successfully made it on to the Holyhead Harpies team in the position of seeker. Of coarse, she was not surprised by this, she had been on the team starting her second year as a chaser and substitute seeker. Substitute to Harry Potter, a year older.'"

"'But now, Mid November, Ginny has resigned. When asked how long she would be gone she just smiled saying, "About nine months if I choose to return." She refused to mention anything on the whereabouts of her husband, Harry Potter, the Chosen One. So will this young witch return to the quidditch pitch, the Prophet will be watching for her.'"

Remus finally got a good look at the picture. It was the Ginny he remembered, only this time she was wearing quidditch robes and looked happier than he ever remembered seeing her. Lily reached over James to point at something in the picture, a small ring with a small stone on it, her wedding ring, " So that's his wife,"

Tonks and Remus nodded saying they had been going out his sixth year, but hadn't been able to his seventh because of the war. They picked up the first picture that was full of people. It was magical and everyone was swaying and looked as if they were singing, overall they were happy.

Remus, Sirius and Tonks were able to point out almost everyone in the picture, Harry and Ginny were in the front wearing what looked like wedding clothes. Next to Harry was Ron, and by Ginny stood Hermione. Behind and near Ginny were five redheads, and positioned similarly behind Harry was a blonde woman with a pudgy boy that resembled her, Lily called the woman petunia and assumed the boy to be Dudley. Behind the bride and groom was Fluer, Victoire and Hagrid. On the back was a few lines of writing, but it wasn't Harry's.

_Harry and Ginny's wedding, 23 June 2001_

_And we're singing "Lean on Me" if you want to know._

"Moony, is that Ginny's handwriting?" Sirius asked looking at the picture.

"Why are you asking me?" Remus asked glaring at him.

"You taught her, so is it?"

"Yes." He replied getting the next picture. This one had a lot more people in it, all of them very young, probably none over twenty. No one was smiling, though a few tried without avail. Harry was in the middle looking pale as a ghost, his best friends standing close to him. Unlike the first, this picture was black and white. There was writing on the back of this one too.

_This is the morning after the Second War ended, and are of the remains of the D.A._

_Taken as a color picture, color never developed, coincident? We think not._

"What do they mean the color never developed?" James asked as they got the next picture.

"Who knows, they probably think it's fitting seeing as how many people died." Was Dora's soft reply.

The next picture was similar to the first, but with a few more people in it. And it was taken in a large room, not outside like the previous one. Another difference, everyone looked happy, _just like the Marauders after a prank_ Lily thought.

_Dumbledore's Army, a secret organization for Dark Arts Defense in a school ruled by Deloris Jane Umbridge, a.k.a. Toadface._

_We are responsible for her uncanny fear of centaurs._

Lily, James and Sirius watched the other two burst out laughing, they had to explain she had been found the day after Sirius' death tied to a tree in the dark forest and shuddered at the mere mention of centaurs. They moved on to the last picture.

It was the man they knew as Ron holding a very small baby. The baby was asleep and had black hair on his head. The writing on the back of this one was Harry's.

_Our son Jay, _(Ginny had scribbled next to it)_ Jameson!_

(Harry's)_ Anyway, he's being held by Ron, his Godfather, his first birthday will be in July on the sixteenth._

"I can't tell, would they have done that on their own, or are they copying us." Lily said thought fully.

"On what?" Remus asked.

"Arguing in writing." Lily said, Remus shrugged.

James' eyes were transfixed on the photo, but he hadn't said anything since they looked at it, but he now spoke, "I feel old."

"What?" Dora seemed surprised, he looked the same as he had when he had died.

"When I died, my son was one, now _his_ son is one-"

"In two weeks." Sirius interrupted as if he was helping.

"Not helping Padfoot." James glared at him.

"It does bring up an interesting point," Lily said now looking confused, "How old are we, twenty-two or forty-six?"

This didn't seem to have occurred to any of them, but Regulus started laughing. Sirius looked at him curiously, "What's so funny, Reggie?"

Reggie calmed down enough to talk and said, "If you're twenty-two, that means your son is almost three years older than you."

The Potters paled, and Sirius looked at him angrily and told him to shut up. And like a good older brother, included a death threat.

The five Marauders (they had decided Lily and Dora counted and listed several things Peter could be called instead.) arrived in the Ministry Lobby at precisely nine forty-three a.m. on the third of July. They saw two men standing in black auror robes with small pins on them. The two men walked over to casually greet them, one was Ron and the other, much to their chagrin, was the Man. James muttered under his breath, "Man, I hope he isn't our probation advisor.."

Even though James was barely audible the Man seemed to hear, "Come on, Ron isn't that bad. And we will be your probation advisors."

Seeing their disappointment Ron added, "For the next six months."

The Maruaders stared at them a moment, Sirius was flinching. Remus finally broke the silence, "Peachy…"

"Don't worry," Ron said with dry humor, "Today we explore the vast realm of paperwork associated with being an auror." This was met with more groans.

"But first we're going to get your wands." The Man said smiling, but Ron made a few hand motions, and finished pointing to Sirius.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

(the meaning of they're hand motions)

(Ron) We can't give the wand back to him

(Man/Harry) It's taken care of

(Ron) Did you do anything illegal?

(Man/Harry) Do you always expect the worst of me?

(Ron) Yes

(Man/Harry) It wasn't _that_ illegal. Besides, he's innocent

(Ron) Kingsley won't look at it that way

(Man/Harry) Well that's his problem, not mine

(Ron) He'll fire you

(Man/Harry) If and when he finds me

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"Uuuuuh… is there a problem?" Remus asked as the two men rapidly flashed hand signals at each other.

"No!" They both said loudly startling the Marauders, the Man continued on a more peaceful tone, "Come on, let's go get your wands."

The Man walked briskly away, Ron followed after rolling his eyes, and they went after him. Dora was intrigued about how they had communicated, and with a look over at Sirius, who looked as if he had been accused of killing Peter again, she decided to ask Ron, "Excuse me, What were you talking about and how were you doing it?"

Ron cast a glance at the man in front who shook his head slightly and gave another signal with his left hand, "Sorry, but I can't tell you what we were discussing, but we were talking using shadowhand. Shadowhand is very similar to sign language, and only the top Aurors are taught to use it."

Ron jumped when James grabbed his arm, then he realized while he was looking back to talk he had nearly run into the Man who was at a small desk with hundreds of boxes scrambled on the surface. The Man looked flustered and muttered, "You'd think this would be somewhat organized."

"I don't see why you're complaining, I've seen your desk." Rom mused looking over his shoulder.

"Yes, but I know where things are in my mess, with other people's messes I'm hopeless, I think I found one of them." He said opening the box he had in his hand, he smiled, "Lily's wand." He handed it to her softly.

"Well that's just bloody great," Ron said annoyed, "None of them are labeled. How did you find that one?"

"You aren't going to like my answer," The Man said softly, "but I know them."

Ron glared at him, "You know them… and that helps you how?"

The man shrugged and touched more boxes experimentally, and finally picked three. He opened them and handed the wands to their respective owners, James, Dora and Remus. Sirius looked confused, "What about mine?"

"Oh, nearly forgot." He pulled three wands out of his pocket, quickly returning two of them and handing the third to Sirius who looked it over suspisciously.

"May I ask why you had my wand?" He said looking at the Man.

"It was a bit more.. complicated to get yours, but an Auror can't go weaponless," He looked around, "And it would probably be best for all of us if you didn't say where you got your wand, several people never really believed everything about Peter."

"Not to mention you might get in trouble." Sirius said in an understanding voice. Ron snorted making signs with his hands.

The Man didn't bother to respond in shadowhand, "I do too care about rules, I just prefer to think of them as guidelines." He said defensively, Lily was now laughing looking at James who looked generally perturbed by his wife's laughter.

"Are you ever going to let me forget saying that fifth year?"

"No." She continued to laugh.

"We should really be getting to the paperwork." Ron said.

"Yeah, we have to bore you to death," The Man said and when he was glared at added, "No pun intended.

Seven hours later the Marauders returned having been thoroughly bored to death by the nine different forms you had to fill out for various situations, a general report, a special case report which included magical creatures, vampires and werewolves, a death form for Aurors, a death form for criminals, a death form for innocent bystanders, etc. The most interesting part of the day was seeing the Man's office, a wall held a map of the world with multi colored push pins that covered the world. The Man had stared at the map angrily.

"What's all the push pins for?" Remus asked.

"It's a case I'm working on with a couple others, and from what I've heard it could grow to Voldemorti-ish proportions, but no one believes me." He replied.

"Does Harry?" James asked.

The Man was confused for half a second before answering, "Oh, yeah, Harry believes me, he usually does. And no I am not Ron." He added as Ron began shadowhanding.

A/N: Yes, I know that The Man being Harry is obvious, almost too obvious, but I don't care. For all questions, comments and complaints, please review. I read all of them and do take suggestions into account. Next chapter should be in a few days. Lemonbober out, yo!


	8. Chapter 7

A/N: Don't worry, this chapter is a bit more exciting. As to Peter, you'll see him soon, trust me, you can't miss him. Oh, and the Marauders will be penpals with Harry, just to make it more interesting.

Disclaimer: Do not own Harry Potter, etc., etc., etc.

_Dear Harry,_

_We've found it funny that in the month we've been training to be Aurors we haven't once seen you. Are you on a big mission or something? Or is this the fact you are in hiding?_

**Sorry we haven't replied to your last letter, but we've been a bit busy. They've started teaching us some higher level defense spells at the Auror's office, so far it hasn't been going great. And your father is having a mid-life crisis.**

Am not!

**Are too!**

Come on Padfoot, is it wrong to be freaked out by the fact your son could be considered three years older than you? Oh, we enjoyed the pictures. Why did everyone look so sad in the black and white picture? You had just defeated Voldemort… again, you should have been happy.

_People are being very vague in regards to information about you. Some say you're evil, others were supposed best friends with you. And why exactly does Kingsley hate you?_

_**He's not really shy about saying so, it's bothersome. Hope to see you soon, though after a month of searching we're finding it to be as hard as you said.**_

_With Love,_

_Lily, _James, **Sirius, **_Remus, __**and Dora.**_

_Dear Mum, Dad, Padfoot, Moony and Dora,_

_As to why you haven't seen me, I claim it to be because you are looking too hard. Although yes, I have several missions I'm working on and have been for a month, mainly concerning several deatheaters killed by Voldemort who escaped. And I have heard about how you are doing in your training, I am good friends with both of the Aurors training you. And don't worry, everyone messes up wandless spells at first._

_Unfortunately, you are considered your death age, simply because we have taken the definition of age as the amount of years you have _lived._ It's been hard for the twins, one is nineteen, the other is twenty-six. And if you want to know how Jay _Jameson___whatever, is doing, he's happy and has started talking, though his first word was kitty. It will make more sense later._

_As to whether I'm evil or not, it depends who you are. To the Aurors I'm a role model, to anyone who thinks the laws should be followed to the T, I should be in Azkaban or at least fired. Kingsley began hating me soon after inventing Death Rings, I'd been experimenting a bit wildly anyway and he felt that by inventing an unforgivable curse I was going to turn on the world. That and I feel that when capturing dark wizards, the end justifies the means._

_Sincerely, _

_Harry Potter_

"The end justifies the means?" Dora said curiously.

"Yes," Lily said, "It's an old saying that's the equivalent of 'For the Greater Good' which has been mainly used by dark wizards."

"It's loose meaning is that as long as the goal is reached it doesn't matter how you got there." James finished.

Sirius was looking at the letter in good humor, "Jay's first word was kitty? There has got to be an interesting story behind that."

"I'm curious as to what he means by we're looking too hard, does that mean we already know him?" Remus asked, he was answered by a round of shrugs.

"Ron, remind me not to have vases in a room where I'm teaching Titiglio." The Man said pulling a shard of glass from his left arm.

"I doubt you'll forget." With a few spells Ron had all of the glass moved into the trash. The Marauders watched as the Man pulled his wand out and use it for the first time in their presence to heal his wound quickly.

Remus stood still on the other side of the room, blushing from accidentally shattering a glass vase, which held a single black rose. He had always been adept with wand spells, but wandless spells had baffled him. The Man walked over with his arms crossed, but he didn't look mad, "Don't say the spell, just do the movement."

Remus felt silly as he moved his left hand forward with his thumb and pinky bent and palm away from him. The Man seemed somewhat surprised at his motion, and looked to the others, "Have you been doing it this way too?" The nodded and he ran his hand through his hair before taking Remus' still outstretched hand and curling the ring finger.

"You have to have the ring finger down, Titiglio is meant to protect you by hurting all without peace, which patronuses are a symbol for. So make a peace sign, put your middle and ring finger together and turn it ninety degrees. Having three means you are hurting all with glass, which is useless unless you have and evil wizard made out of glass. Try it again with the incantation." The Man was patient, and always explained why to do something a certain way.

Remus tried again, this time a gold wave pushed through the room and as it touched each person it showed their patronus. Lily a doe, James a Stag, Ron a dog, Dora a wolf, The Man's was a lion, and Sirius… flew back off his chair and hit the wall. The Man shook his head softly, but went to help Sirius up. Ron wasn't watching Sirius though, his eyes were on the Man, "Hey!"

As soon as the man looked at him they began shadowhanding.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

(Ron) What happened to your patronus?

(Man/Harry) What are you talking about?

(Ron) It's a lion!

(Man/Harry) Oh, right, that

(Ron) Why did it change?

(Man/Harry) It didn't change, I have two.

(Ron) And you didn't tell anyone!

(Man/Harry) I told Ginny! Besides it because of her it's a lion, her ani-

(Ron) is lioness, I know, I know. You're serious about this whole charade, aren't you?

(Man/Harry) I'm not Serious, he's serious

- - - - - - - - - - -

The Man had just pointed to Sirius, Ron looked angry but settled with laughing for a moment. Finally Ron just said, "I wonder how often that joke has been used."

"Too often, I assure you." The Man looked back to Sirius, "Come on, Ron will continue with the others."

Sirius followed him through the building, the Aurors office seemed to have been built in the style of a maze, but the Man had never had trouble finding anything. Eventually they came to a flight of stairs with double doors at the bottom, they went through these only to be outside. It was a small clearing near the building with trees giving them about thirty feet.

The Man walked out into the middle and looked at him, "Cast a patronus charm."

Sirius tried, he hated admitting it, but ever since Azkaban he hadn't been able to cast any kind of patronus. A silver mist floated from his wand towards the Man, but disappeared before reaching him. He received a skeptical look, "I'm not an expert, but I would say not happy enough. What are you thinking of?"

"Trying is a better word," Sirius answered he followed this with something about hanging out with James. The Man just shook his head.

"Don't think pre-Azkaban. Dementors would have sucked your happiest memories from you." His voice was even, patient. Patient to the point it almost scared Sirius.

Only two memories came to mind, he chose the one that was his memory of meeting James when he came back to life. The silver mist was thicker, and may have actually turned a dementor around, but nowhere near the corporeal patronus he needed. So he tried the other memory. There was no mist, but a large silver dog came from his wand, the same dog he remembered his patronus being during his school and Auror days.

"That's better. Mind me asking what the memory is?" The Man said as the patronus circled him and then disappeared.

Sirius blushed slightly, "Yes, I think I do."

The Man moved his head to one side, "Might as well make sure it's enough." He cast Titiglio, which made Remus' gold wave look yellow, his looked almost tangible. His patronus stood in the way and he was not knocked of his feet by this.

"Your Titiglio is a lot stronger than Remus' is. Who taught you?" Sirius asked.

"I was one of the first to learn, and you could say the inventor taught me. Besides I have had a lot of practice." The Man said softly, his cheeks getting a little red. Sirius shrugged, _at least he's humble_. They returned to the room, The Man obviously knew more of the spell than Ron did, he was constantly correcting everything from pronunciation of the incantation to the speed they moved their hand. By the end of the day they had all produced Titiglios that were similar to Ron's in strength making them acceptable, but paled in comparison to the Man's.

When they got home they found Regulus playing wizard's chess with Kreacher, who was apparently beating him pretty badly. They asked him why he was playing chess with an elf he answered very simply, "I've got nothing else to do, neither does he, and I get bored when I don't have my support group."

"Right." Sirius said, "And how is that going Reg?"

"It's pretty weird to tell you the truth. You hear some pretty strange stories, I could tell you a few about Grindelwald that would make your skin crawl, and some about Snape that would make you never want to go near him again." Reggie answered smiling.

"Too late." James mused, "We already don't want to go near Snape."

"All the better, he's gone senile. He's actually glad to have received an offer to work as potions master again, apparently Slughorn doesn't want to work there anymore since they banned the Slug Club." Reg was shaking his head to show how pathetic he thought Snape was.

"Who cleared Grindelwald?" Remus asked.

"Harry, he said something about Gell in our letters. Gell is his nickname, Snape doesn't want one. Anyway, he said his final attempts before dying were to make it harder for Voldemort to find…" He stopped for a minute to think, "I think that's checkmate Kreacher. He said it was some sort of weapon, but he went about it all wrong. He was very vague about the whole thing, probably because we were all at one point evil, no point in taunting us."

Lily looked curious, "So you have been talking to Grindelwald, is it true that he was friends with Dumbledore."

"Yeah, apparently they are both power obsessive, he says there's a reason that he has continually refused the position of Minister. Gell still has no idea how Harry found out about his death, it was only him and Voldemort. We choose to regard Harry with tentative thanks." He said. He would continue to hide things like that Harry had come to several meetings and had told them his sources were unnecessary, they had been cleared under Veritaserum. And while they were still wary of him, he had become friends with the young man. Snape on the other hand showed clear signs of hatred towards him. He amended Harry at the fact he could ignore his taunts saying you learned to ignore them after a while.

Nothing more of interest happened that night, except and argument between the Potters that begun with James mentioning his opinion on girls being able to prank. This egun a prank war, the boys against the girls, Sirius had Reg be on the girls side because he was close enough to being one. Regulus commented with the following statement: "Good, I don't like losing."

The next morning the three original Marauders awoke screaming, the others had gotten up early and were waiting in the dining room laughing. The three men sat angrily at the table with pursed lips, James spoke first, "Permanent?"

"For about a week." Lily said hiding giggles.

"This means war." Remus said looking at his wife pointedly.

"Thought it already was, besides, Lily's idea." Dora replied buttering an English muffin.

"Personally, Siri, I think it's an improvement." He was laughing, "Pink hair suits all of you really well.

Meanwhile, Bob Schmarmy had fell into a routine, none of it including Ireland, or potatoes, though he did often carry a potato around incase he got hungry or bored. Many people noticed him, but thought him just to be a strange old man who _really_ likes potatoes. But in truth he was on a mission, his master had found him the day he came back, all of this would be worth it for him.

A/N: What do you think Sirius' memory is? And why is Bob back? I hope you like the pink hair, I've always wanted to see Lily and Dora prank the marauders. Please review!


	9. Chapter 8

A/N: Chapter eight, and all of your questions will be explained in the story. And yes, Bob is back, and you'll see just how important that is. Oh, and I have Dudley in this chapter! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognize.

Dear Harry, 

We finally figured out wandless spells! We've learned Titiglio, Expelliarmus, Incendio, and Accio. Perhaps we could help with your big case, we know we aren't exactly qualified, but we would like to help anyway. I guess I'm getting used to you being older than I am, but it still sounds weird.

**Sorry if my writing is a bit shaky, but his first was 'Kitty'? At least yours was respectable, 'P'ongs'. **

_Funny, the boys don't seem to be talking about their new hairstyle…_

_There is no reason to!_

_**Yes there is!**_

**I agree with the girls. And thanks for getting me in that group.**

**Shut up Reg, just because you pulled off one prank doesn't mean you have to brag. If I remember right you were a goody two shoes in school.**

**And you and James were in detention at least once a week.**

_Lily would like to submit that the Boys (minus Reg) look surprisingly handsome with bright pink hair. _

We got you back!

_**I would hardly say that transfiguring our clothes into crows so they attack us is really on the same level.**_

_Anyway, we were a bit concerned with part of your last letter, what did you mean by 'the end justifies the means'? We know a couple different meanings and are concerned._

And what do you mean we're looking too hard?

**Love,**

**Sirius, **_Remus__**Dora, **__Lily, _James, **and Regulus.**

_Dear Mum, Dad, Padfoot, Moony, Dora and Reggie,_

_I'm glad to hear how well you have done with wandless magic, you're farther along than most have gotten in a month. I hope you enjoy using Titiglio, it makes it easier to hurt multiple dark wizards since they can't produce Patronus. I'm sure Padfoot could tell you how painful it is, yes I did hear about that. I thank you for your off, but I would like you to have a bit more experience before getting you involved in something this big, but you will eventually get pulled in whether you want to or not._

_I would also like to remind a certain godfather of mine that if he insults my now one year old son I am not afraid go through with awful threats… Remember, I am your boss and it is ultimately my decision whether you become an Auror or not._

Besides, I will kill you.

_Her threat should be more frightening._

_I agree with the girls and Reggie, I thought the Marauders would live up to their reputations better. Something like enchanting suits of armor, Ginny's done worse, then again she grew up with the twins. I certaintly hope you don't give up, but if that's your best I would. And I saw pictures, they don't look half bad with pink hair, you should keep it that way._

I wholeheartedly agree, and Jameson looked at the picture and said 'pretty'. And if you have the urge to say anything about that refer to my last comment.

_As for the end justifying the means, they are mad at me for using unforgivable curses on evil people. No I am not harming innocents, you of all people should know that I have had to deal with enough death, I don't want to cause death unnecessarily. And for unforgivables, it's mainly the constricting part of death rings._

_With Love, _

_Harry, _Ginny, and Jay _(Told you it was Jay) _(Shut up)

"I feel threatened." Sirius said softly when he finished reading.

"Perhaps because they openly threatened you." Dora reminded him.

"How did he get a picture of us?" James said in a complaining tone.

"Probably work yesterday." Lily said softly, "Ron and the Man couldn't stop laughing."

The expression on Sirius' face changed, "Are we ever going to find out what his name is?"

"Seeing as something has come up all eight times that we asked so he couldn't answer, I would say no." Remus answered. They all thought about the days during their training they would casually ask his name and Aurors would come ask for his help. Then he would quickly apologize to them and Ron and be gone.

July twenty-ninth was so far the most exciting day for the Marauders, they wouldn't be practicing spells in either Ron or the Man's office and the pink hair dye had finally faded. They had been waiting in excitement even though the two men had refused to tell them what they were doing. They met in the main room of the Auror office, a large rectangular room with rooms around the outer wall, six were offices for the top six Aurors, the other eight were temporary holding rooms for criminals.

Ron and the Man were leaning against the door to Ron's office talking in quiet voices, smiling as if joking around. They both pulled themselves from the door when the Marauders approached, both seeming in a fairly good mood, usually one thought it was too early in the morning to be awake and it took several jokes and an hour to get them in a good mood. Ron talked first, "Are you ready for our surprise?"

The Marauders nodded, the Man continued for him, "It's rare nowadays, but every once in a while there is a major magical threat toward the Other Minister while he travels. When this occurs Kingsley asks a few of us to replace his regular guards. So we're taking a bit of a field trip."

The Marauders weren't quite sure what to think of this, Remus however asked, "The Other Minister?"

"The muggle one." Ron replied filing through a manila envelope taking out note cards, "We of coarse need different identities since other wizards would recognize. If it's a muggle threat let him take care of it, he's had some muggle training."

At their confused expressions the Man added, "I have a muggle cousin who works as a part time bodyguard, he taught me everything I would need to know. He's also going to be there today. And you are not supposed to say anything unless spoken to, it's a muggle expectation."

Four hours later they were outside of the muggle Minister's office, all with their looks changed ever so slightly, Sirius had changed the most because his face had been shown to muggles after his escape from Azkaban. The main difference in the Man was that he had been given blonde hair, apparently he was playing the role of cousin to the muggle bodyguard.

The muggle was well built, bigger than the Man in every way, yet they both had a very similar edge to them that made you not want to cross them. The two men walked up to each other and shook hands with a firm nod. The Man looked back to them, "This is Big D, or just D, D, this is my team, Bill, you already know (he gestured towards Ron), and then here are some newer people, but the finest nonetheless, Ryan, Laura, John, Henry and Lydia." He pointed to the five of them in turn, Sirius, Dora, Remus, James and Lily.

Big D smiled knowingly, The Man explained that he was in on everything to make things easier. He shook hands with all of them and began to explain in more detail how everything was going to go. It was a speech to take place in a very crowded place with several terrorists in nearby areas, The Man silently whispered deatheaters had been reported nearby. Their instructions about letting the two cousins handle muggles was repeated followed by more information for general attacks.

The speech was halfway through, and Sirius knew he shouldn't be this bored, but he hated standing still on a beautiful day in the middle of summer. The eight guards had been carefully positioned on the narrow stage. Sirius had been placed slightly behind the minister and to the left in stuffy muggle clothes, the Man had placed him there saying he had retained the slight murderous look to him from Azkaban. This had caused James to laugh at him a lot. Ron had been placed near him and to the right. Lily and James were against the back of the stage on the left, Dora and Remus on the right.

Big D and the Man were in more important places, the Man stood on the far left, Big D on the far right. Each had a muggle weapon called a gun in plain sight, the weapon was explained to the wizards who knew very little of muggle warfare. Each man stood stiffly watching the crowd without emotion as if in a trance, it was the first time they ever looked related. Sirius' mind drifted, as it often did when he had nothing to occupy himself with other than not looking bored in front of so many people. He tried to keep track of what the Minister was saying, but he just never had the patience for politics.

There was a moment of shock in the audience after one of his statements, as if he said something insulting, and then he heard several screams of protest. This wouldn't have frightened the twelve people on stage (the minister and three officials makes twelve) half as much as if it wasn't followed by gunfire, especially since it was close. The six aurors made a tight circle around the officials like they had been told, Sirius near the front with a perfect view of what went on.

The terrorists were on both sides, five coming from Big D's and four on the Man's. Big D took three out with the gun and knocked the other two out by hand when they got too close. He had instantly killed two. The Man however had an element of grace to how he took them out, beginning with a yell of warning before shooting the lead man in the foot. The one following him tripped over his body, the remaining two stumbled and tried rushing him side by side. He dropped his gun and squeezed one part on each of the man's shoulders, they instantly crumpled. By that time their only conscious and not bleeding friend was making his way to the Man. By the time he got there the Man had the gun in his hand, but instead of shooting him he promptly hit him in the left temple with the gun. All in all, in two minutes two men had taken down nine. Big D and the Man gave the entire audience a look as if challenging them to attack if they so intended, no one wanted to after seeing what they had done. Muggle police hurriedly took the nine of them away.

Sirius and the other took their places again after the Man gave Ron a signal, he had told them it was safe for now. They all were supposed to be watching the crowd, but all except Ron had part of their attention on the man, he and Big D had gone back o their same positions. They had always known the Man was extremely powerful magic wise, but they had never imagined him able to incapacitate four muggles in front of a muggle audience. When the speech resumed it seemed to fly past, but Sirius was okay with that, he had enough on his mind.

"How long have you been able to do that?" Remus asked when they got back.

"Do what?" The Man said without looking up from the paperwork he was filling out.

"That thing with the muggles." Dora answered.

"That thing with the muggles, wow, that's specific. Which one?" He said sarcastically, "Shooting, pressure points or braining people?"

"All three would be nice." Sirius said.

"Okay," he said finally looking up form his paperwork, "Shooting I've been able to do about ten months, Big D taught me all three. I'm not very good at long range which is why I waited until he was at close range to shoot. Pressure points I learned when I had just become a full time Auror, about five and a half years ago. And braining people, has just kind of come naturally."

The Man was nearly done with his paperwork so they decided to ask one more question, Lily was to ask, "So who are you?"

Mid sentence the door opened to a couple of the high ranked Aurors, one motioned to the Man in Shadowhand. He nodded and made a few signs to Ron, who looked a bit surprised but nodded as the three Aurors sprinted to wherever they were going. Ron took the Man's place in filling out the paperwork while silently laughing, "He seems to be cursed, whenever you ask his name he's taken to help in some big emergency."

"What kind of emergency is it?" James asked him.

"The usual, some wizard just thought they saw someone from his case, or was attacked, threatened. It has to do with his big case right now, I missed the first half so I only got the general drift. He did have a message for you though, two actually." Ron stopped lost in thought for a moment.

After being motioned to move on by a couple of the Marauders he finally said, "He wants you to know that you all already know his name." He let a moment for this to sink in then continued, "And he says you get the ret of the day off for being good."

After a minute of them all staying put he finally shooed them from his office.

That night they had a very heated discussion over the identity of the Man.

"Sirius, it can't be Neville, we met Neville already!" Lily yelled at him after the second hour of arguing.

"Couldn't it be Harry?" James asked.

"Okay, let's look at the facts, Harry's eyes are green, the Man's are grey. Harry has kept his hair short, though it is possible he may have grown it out." Remus begun for the third time, "Harry also has glasses and a scar on his forehead, the Man has neither. Harry's patronus was always a stag, the Man's is a lion. It's not possible."

"Okay Moony, I get it." James said, he didn't really care if he wasn't exactly fond of the Man, he just wanted to find his son.

Regulus had spent the previous two hours watching the Maruaders fight among themselves, which helped him get over his brother's latest prank. He felt the earring holes again, he prayed Lily was right when she said they would go away over time. However now he chose to laugh at their stupidity, Harry had done a good job at hiding who he was.

And he had been right, they were looking much too hard.

A/N: Ahh… it feels good to finally have this out of my head, it was one of the first things that came to me for this fic. The thought of Harry with a gun makes me smile, but I don't think he would have used it. Please submit all questions, comments, and complaints in a review. I reserve the right to ignore complaints.


	10. Chapter 9

A/N: This should be a short chapter. You could say it's that one annoying chapter that gives you the information necessary for the next chapter, but isn't anything special. I hope you enjoy it anyway.

Disclaimer: Nothing you recognize is mine.

_Dear Harry, _

_Happy 26__th__ Birthday! Enclosed are a few presents. And you were right, wandless spells do get easier, we can all do Titiglio and Accio, and we're now learning Expelliarmus. Though we are getting a little annoyed at Ron and the Man who keep cracking jokes in Shadowhand._

_**Padfoot would like to submit that he is very sorry for insulting Jay Potter forgives along with his parents. Padfoot would also like to say that mad Weasleys scare him.**_

Prongs would like to say he is relieved to hear his son isn't a mindless killer and would like to wish him Happy Birthday.

_Moony would like to announce the Marauders have better retaliated in the prank war._

**Regulus would like to complain that he now has holes in his ears for earrings and does not like his brothers pranking.**

**Padfoot would like to argue that if his little brother wasn't on the girls team the idea wouldn't have occurred to him.**

_**Dora would like to say that having kitchen appliances doing things they shouldn't is a much better prank. She would also like to apologize for the pink hair.**_

_Lily would like to know why we are writing this way. She would also like to kill whoever's idea it was to have an oven have an explode button where the on button should be._

_**Dora would like to add on a lighter note that Teddy has finally moved into Grimauld Place and for once we've heard good things about you. She would also like to know why he wants kitty.**_

Prongs would like to end the letter saying that whenever you change your mind about the mission we are willing to help.

Love,

James, _Lily,_ **Sirius, **_**Dora, **__Remus, _**and Regulus**

"That sounds nothing like the Marauders Map." Ginny said sarcastically. The letter had actually arrived on the first of August.

After reading the letter themselves Jay had begged to see it and was now looking at the words occasionally asking them to be read to him. Harry could be heard saying, "That says Prongs, my daddy… Padfoot, my godfather… yes, just like Ron is… That's your name… that's your last name… no, you can't hove holes in your ears too…"

His presents had been several books and broom equipment, they didn't know he hadn't flown in nearly and usually only for fun. The books however suited him fine, he read almost as much as Hermione had at school. Almost. Ginny watched her husband with his son, since one was usually at work and the other was asleep when the other wasn't this was rare. Harry was surprisingly patient, he never yelled unless there was danger, and he had this ease where if Jay did something wrong (another rare feat) a quiet word would stop him from doing it again.

It was something Harry had never noticed, his power to get people to follow him. Most people had noticed it during the early days of Dumbledore's Army, he was one of the youngest yet had people even two years older following him, some to the end… She shook her head, there was no reason to think about that, they were back now and that was all that mattered.

_Dear Mum, Dora, Moony, Padfoot, Prongs, and Reggie,_

_Thank you for the Birthday wishes, I liked my presents. I apologize for the Shadowhand, I invented it. I do however give you permission to hit/jinx either one who while talking in Shadowhand holds up three fingers pressed together. Trust me, they will have deserved it. As for your learning Expelliarmus, I apologize Remus, I blatantly disregarded what you said and made it my signature spell. Deal with it._

_Harry would like to know if he knows that since Ginny is his wife she would be a Potter. He would also like to agree that mad Weasleys are scary, Molly killed Bellatrix._

Ginny agrees with Prongs that it is good Harry is not a mindless killer.

_Harry would like to add that more kitchen appliances should have 'explode' button and suggests reading labels before pressing buttons. He means no offense by that._

Ginny would like to end the letter by announcing Jameson _Jay!_ whatever, now has learned all of your names, and thanks to Harry's album, knows your faces as well.

With Love,

Ginny_ and Harry_

"They're making fun of you." Dora said smiling.

"How so?" Remus asked.

"The whole third person thing."

"That's just the way we write, it's easier."

"And annoying."

"He probably recognizes it from the map." Remus said.

"What map?" Lily demanded.

"The Marauders Map. I found him with it in his third year." Remus answered.

"He has the map!" James said grinning.

"No idea how he got it, it was taken from us seventh year, wasn't it?" Sirius asked.

"You don't think Harry swiped it from Filch, do you?" James asked nodding his reply to Sirius.

The others shook their heads, Remus answered, "No, he may have made trouble, but he came by things honestly."

"Good," Lily sighed in relief, "He isn't exactly like you guys were at school."

The next day work was going… unpleasantly. The Man looked skeptically at Lily, not angry, but bothered by something. He finally broke the awkward silence, "Weren't you the one that was top of you class in Charms all seven years at Hogwarts?"

Lily was shocked by the question, "Yeah, I was."

The Man shook his head wistfully, "How long have you been working on the spell?" The Man had been gone since the first of August, it was now the fifteenth.

"About nine days."

"And you still can't perform Incendio wandless? Not even a spark?" Lily shook her head, "Strange, you've all done well on the previous spells. No incantation, let me watch."

He watched her, then had the other four repeat it for him. Ron groaned, "What did I forget this time?"

"Nothing too big. Usually it doesn't matter what kind of spell it is, but wandless it does." He said with a weak smile, "You've been doing defense spells, quick, direct movement. This is a charm, you need to flourish your hand a bit, it helps to bend your ring finger."

An hour later things were going only a bit better. The good news was that they could produce fire, the bad news was that they hadn't gotten too good at aiming. The Man put his robes out for the sixth time when he finally said, "I certainly hope our mission goes better than this."

"Mission?" James said softly.

Ron rolled his eyes, "Oops, did he say that out loud?

"I'm afraid I did." The Man said jokingly, "We're supposed to give three months of training, but after last week a few Aurors quit and we heard you were more than willing to go on missions."

"Harry told you?" Sirius asked.

"Yes," Ron answered quickly, "Although, for the time being we will be doing spying only. That will free the remaining Aurors to do more dangerous stuff. The mission will be just you guys, I've been asked for elsewhere.

The next three days were spent finishing with Incendio and preparing for the spying mission. All they knew was that it was going to be an important fire call report between a spy and a higher up. Nevertheless, they were all excited.

A/N: The next chapter is all about the mission, and it is important so pay attention! Not that those who guessed Harry aren't. It will give a clue to further plot plans. Please review!


	11. Chapter 10

A/N: Chapter ten. The Marauders are spying. Deal with it. The return of a character we haven't seen in a long time. No! Not Quirrell! Just read it…

Disclaimer: Don't own Harry Potter.

At precisely seven p.m. six people appeared suddenly on a deserted country road in Southern England. They moved quickly to get to the small abandoned ranch that the spy had lived in for about a month. They knew the floo call would take place in the basement fireplace at seven-thirty, which had a small window barely above ground. Remus and Lily would be taking notes on what they heard, James and Dora guarding them. Sirius was supposed to guard the house in general, the Man's job was to infiltrate and get a better look at the spy and hopefully his master in his animagus form.

They got on the property at seven-twenty, Sirius turned into Padfoot and snuck off to sit by the door, at the sign of trouble he was supposed to bark. The remaining five circled to the other side of the house where they easily found the lit basement window. Remus and Dora crossed to the far side of the window, the scribes began setting up their parchment, quills, ink and wands for lighting. Dora and James cast walls to block their light from view and held their wands at the ready. The man looked at his watch and motioned three minutes to go before crouching at James' feet to look through the small window.

The Man had taught them the basics of Shadowhand and after a minute gave him three signals. _Enemy sighted_ was the first to say the spy was in sight, the next was, _We are safe, _this was to mean they were out of sight of the fire and were unknown. The last was an unusual one to see, _Easier than I thought._ James was watching and listening for what was next and the final signal came, _Floo is ready, _meaning the call had begun.

"Hello Master." a strong Irish accent spoke, the sign for spy was made, James passed it on to Dora, both passed onto the scribes so they could recognize the voice.

"Hello Bob," Another voice drawled as if upset to see the man, this was the floo voice, "I hope you have the requested information."

James felt the body at his feet shrink until it was fairly small, then he saw a dark cat jump through the window onto a desk and then sneak under a chair near the fire, a perfect view point.

"Not exactly, but what I have may be better." bob replied. James noticed the cat was perfectly black, no markings whatsoever, unusual for an animagus.

"So you don't know where he is?" The voice demanded angrily, James could have sworn he'd heard it before, but he couldn't place a name.

"I know where his family is, both houses." Bob claimed eagerly.

"It doesn't matter, the charm protects them!"

"I know their route, I've been following them."

"You're suggesting we intersect on their way, the muggle too?"

"Yes, sir."

There was a pause then the floo voice seemed softer, "This will take immense planning, we thank you for the idea, it will take a couple of months to get things together. We will be in contact. Since when do you have a cat?"

Bob seemed surprised, "Cat?" There was a loud yowl, James looked to see the animagus rubbing against his legs. Bob was upset, "Darned demon! Out with you!" The cat made an angry sound and in seconds had run through the window.

"Goodnight Bob."

"'Night, Master." Bob shut the window so the Marauders were trying hard not to breathe, but they went unnoticed.

When the two scribes had finished packing their stuff again two dark shapes appeared, the Man and Sirius' animagus forms. The six of them walked to the property edge silently and apparated back to the Aurors office. The tension in the room began to dissapate as the Man and Sirius turned back into humans. The Man unlocked the door to his office, it usually wasn't locked, but they were the only ones there. He was ruffling through a drawer in his desk and picked two files from it spreading the photos on the desk.

"Here's our spy and his superior, but it isn't the dark lord." He told them, he took the picture of the spy, "Look familiar?"

They looked at it and faintly recognized him from orientation day, auburn hair, short, and even in the picture was holding a raw potato. The Man looked unsettled, "His name is Bob Schmarmy, he was killed personally by Voldemort and was a death eater for being freakishly annoying. And now he's working for this dark lord."

"Who is the new dark lord?" Lily asked.

"I'm not allowed to tell you that," The Man answered.

"Let me guess, Harry told you not to?" Remus said dryly.

"Yes, and since it's his case he's in charge, but a good deal of us are wrapped up in it. He wants you assured hat you will get your chance to fight." He didn't seem to want to say anything else, he looked at Remus and Lily's scrolled, and smiled seeing they were the same word for word.

"Who do you mean by a good deal of us?" Sirius asked, this made the Man frown.

He bit his lip, "This wizard wasn't well known, but seeing as how he died he has made enemies with the Ministry, but moreover hates the Aurors. That's why so many quit, they don't want to get caught up in everything. Unfortunately, since you are the family, directly or not, of the head of department you're in danger no matter what."

"Cheerful." Sirius rolled his eyes.

"Is that what that fire call was about?" Dora asked.

"We believe so, you're Harry's family, then there's his aunt and cousin, which is the two houses. They wanted to know where Harry lives." He told them looking frustrated.

"They certainly have a task before them," James scoffed, "We've been looking for him almost two months, and failed."

"I don't think anyone could find him." Lily added.

"He's certainly had practice." The all knew the Man was referring to the second war.

There was a strange buzzing noise, and the Man got a strange look on his face and reached into his pocket retrieving a small device. He quickly explained it was a cell phone and flipped it open, "Hello?"

He was looking concerned as he listened, he finally spoke, "It takes a bit to freak me out, I think I can handle whatever it is… just tell me."

He had been talking in a relaxed tone leaning casually against his desk, but he very suddenly stiffened and dropped Bob Schmarmy's file on the floor not caring that papers covered the floor. He swallowed hard, "This isn't a joke is it?... No, I'm happy about it, I'll be home as soon as I can, got it?... Bye."

Still looking shocked he slowly closed the phone and returned it to his pocket. He got himself together and simply said, "We'll finish up here tomorrow, you can go now. And you can leave that for tomorrow. Goodnight all."

Lily had been on the verge of picking up the papers, but he was in a rush to leave. He left the Auror Office apparition guard last, but was first to leave. They looked at each other curiously, Lily asked in frustration, "What is he in such a big hurry over?" They all shrugged. The Man never spoke of the occasion again.

_Dear Harry and Ginny, _

_Happy first of September! It used to be my favorite day of the year simply because I went to Hogwarts then. And I don't blame you for Shadowhand, it's useful. We've gone on several missions now and are really starting to warm up to the Man, we've decided not to ask his name because whenever we do something bad happens. He's adopted the name well._

_Deal with it? What kind of way is hat to talk, then again, you are the son of Prongs…_

You say that like it's a bad thing.

_I didn't say anything._

Fine, you wrote it like it was a bad thing.

**Hey Harry, any clue why Reggie's acting weird lately, when we talk about work he suddenly bursts into laughter and walks out of the room, it's plain freaky. And I apologize, I fear female Potters, they're even scarier than Weasley's.**

_Lily would like to inform her son that she hit Sirius with a frying pan for his last comment._

_**Teddy wants me to say hi for him. Remember, his seventh birthday is in mid- November. Hopefully we have found you by then.**_

We heard why you were in hiding, and we aren't afraid. Besides, the Man thinks we'll be safe for a while. Hope to see you.

Love,

Prongs, _Lily, __**Dora, **__Lupin,_** and Sirius**

_Dear Moony, Dora, James, Lily and Padfoot,_

_Trust me, there was a time I liked the first of September better than my birthday, but not quite as well as Christmas. Always better than Halloween though, I've had very tramatic Halloweens, fighting trolls, writing in blood in walls, Deathday parties, Sirius Black infiltrating the Gryffindor dormitories, induction to the triwizard tournament, not to mention my parent's deaths._

_I've heard very good reviews from Ron and the Man, as you call him. And your missions have all gone well, none harmed, nothing compromised, and mission was accomplished. Although only one has so far not been spying, but I think I've rarely seen three dark wizards in such bad shape._

I would like to thank you for admitting I am a Potter, although three of my brother's nearly killed him when they found out I was engaged to him. Three months and eight death threats later we were married. And props to the woman who hit Sirius with a frying pan!

_Well, tell hi to Teddy for me. And there is a long, slightly scary story about Kitty. It's capitalized, like I told Remus, Deal with it._

_I personally hope the Man is right, but I wouldn't let my guard down if I were you. As for Reggie, it's probably a group joke between him and Gell. There actually pretty good friends, who would've guessed._

_And we should probably mention that Ginny is pregnant._

_Love,_

_Harry _and Ginny

**Dear Harry and Ginny, **

**Sorry about the week and a half delay, we were on a three day mission, though you probably already know that. I am very bothered that my little brother is friends with Grindelwald. Are you sure he isn't evil?**

**He isn't evil, just misunderstood!**

**That's what you said about Snape.**

**No, I said that Snape had deep mental issues and emotional scarring from his childhood, I need not remind you whose fault that is. Anyway, he's a creep.**

Amen to that!

_Shut up!_

Yes dear. Prongs would like to know how Padfoot could be scary.

_**I don't want to deal with Kitty being capitalized. He wanted me to tell you he made a compromise between the two. And in case you're wondering, I'm responsible for the boils on that one bloke.**_

_And we're simply delighted to know that you have another child on the way. When is the due date?_

_I don't know how you think we would let our guard down when we lived under Moody preaching about 'Constant vigilance' all the time. We'll still try._

_Love, _

_Moony, _**Padfoot, **Prongs, _Lily,__** Dora **_**and Reggie**

_Dear James, Lily, Remus, Dora, Sirius, and Reggie,_

_Trust me Sirius, Gell isn't evil. If he was Snape and Reggie would probably be dead, wait you probably think that means he's evil. Just give me the benefit of the doubt on this one. And Reggie is right, Snape has more issues than Draco Malfoy has insults for me (In case you don't know him, we were arch rivals through school and insulted/hexed/got the other in trouble as often as we could, which was pretty often)._

_As for Teddy, that means he decided teal for his semi- perminant hair color. Though on formalities he usually goes with dark brown. He tends to uncontrollably use magic if his hair is accidentally any shade of red or pink. His first time using magic was several years ago and was the inspiration for Titiglio. And you did a good job, you do that spell about as well as Ginny does the Bat Bogey Hex._

_And if not before, I'll see you on Christmas, Dumbledore, Minerva, a few others and me are arranging a Christmas party. Jay will be there._

It's Jameson!

_Do you want me to call you Ginevra?_

No.

_That's what I thought. The due date is May 13__th__. Anyway, see you later._

_Love, _

_Harry _and Ginny

A/N: I lied, there was more than just the mission. I did the math, this is when I think the second child would have to be born to go to Hogwarts nineteen years after the second war. Reviews make me want to update, so even if you're flaming me, please give a review! If you need a topic, go ahead and yell at me for how Harry looks, some of you have already taken advantage of that…


	12. Halloween!

A/N: Sorry for taking so long to update, but just as I finished writing chapter 11 and was about to save, Word 'unexpectedly quit' on me. So I am officially pissed off at Word. Again. I'll try to make this version better than the original. Oh, and there's a bit of swearing in here. Don't be offended!

Disclaimer: Don't own Harry Potter, Monty Python, the line from page 212 of the seventh Harry Potter book, etc. etc. etc…..

The mornings at the house of Black were always hectic, between five people going to work, one occasionally having a support group meeting (the members lovingly referred to as 'I can't believe they aren't dark wizards' by the Marauders) and making sure that Teddy wasn't left home alone it easily turned into chaos. This morning was different however, the Marauders had slept uneasily and were up at six, they never left the house until a quarter to nine, rarely up before seven-thirty. Dora was the last one down stairs and was greeted by everyone as if they were still half asleep.

"I assume I wasn't the only one having trouble sleeping last night." Her statement was returned with nods.

"Yeah, and we all have this strange feeling something bad is going to happen today, you?" Sirius asked her.

"Yep, and no coincidence that it's Halloween." She sat down on the couch next to James, Lily was on his other side, Sirius sat in an armchair, Remus was leaning against a wall. An hour later Kreacher had breakfast ready, soon after Reggie and Teddy were downstairs.

Teddy could be described as excited, but it was an understatement. Regulus had promised to take him to a deserted field to teach him how to fly, Remus or Dora would have, but neither had much time to spare. When asked if he would Reggie gave them a smile, "Sure, who better to teach him than a seeker for Slytherin for five years." This began a huge debate between James and Regulus, ending with Lily saying the next one to talk didn't get dessert, it was a quiet evening.

At eight forty-five the five of them got up and left after saying good-bye and Dora threatening to do painful, and in some cases illegal, things to Regulus if Teddy got hurt. They walked briskly to a nearby alley where they apparated every morning to just outside the Aurors Office, but this morning something went wrong. A group of maybe five men were standing at the end of the alley, they tried to back out of the Alley, but more men were blocking their way. What was worse is that these men all had their wands out and pointed at respective targets.

The Marauders attempted to pull out their wands, but it was useless. Sirius was the fastest draw of the group, followed closely by James, they barely had their wands out when the five were simultaneously hit with stunners.

An hour later at the Aurors Office, Ron and Harry were having an argument.

"Harry, just because you have a bad feeling about this does not mean they're in danger." Ron said.

"They're almost an hour late, they're never late." He argued.

"They could have slept in or something, they'll be here soon."

"They would have sent us a message if they knew they were going to be late."

"You worry too much."

"Really, ever thought it might be because there's some loon trying to kill me?"

"That aside, there's no way to know for sure if anything's wrong, perhaps they're just sick."

"Two things, would have sent a message, and would they really all be sick at the same time? Why don't I just go over and make sure."

"If it'll make you stop worrying." Ron said allowing Harry to cross over to the fire and floo over to Grimauld Place. He hadn't wanted to think anything could have happened to the trainees, but the more he thought about the situation the more likely it seemed.

Harry emerged from the fireplace at Grimauld Place, and it was just as he remembered it, creepy, though not as much as it was when the place was filthy. It was definitely lived in though, books everywhere (probably because of Remus and Lily alone), a few toys he recognized as Teddy's and a few other personal touches. "What brings you here?" A voice said from the corner.

"Not much Reg, do you know the five of them went?" Harry asked.

He gave Harry a skeptical look, "They aren't at work? They left over half an hour ago."

He froze, if they weren't here and they weren't at work… the dark lord. Not THE dark lord, but the uprising one, the one who wanted to kill him. _Dammit, he's using them as bait._ He noticed Regulus was looking at him, "This isn't good, is it?"

"Not really, but I won't let them die…" Regulus glared, he quickly added, "Again."

"You might want to leave before your godson comes down, he isn't going to be happy I'm canceling his flying lesson." Harry waved goodbye and flooed back to the Auror's office. Ron was waiting.

"See, I told you they were just-"

"Gone." Harry finished glaring at him.

Ron's smile melted away, he hadn't wanted to think it was even a possibility. He remembered the conversation they had after spying on Bob Scharmy, they had planned to remember it, but had failed. He finally asked, "They know where your cousin lives too, are they safe?"

"I would have been alerted if any wizard entered a couple mile radius of the place, they're safe for now." He was angry to the point of calmness, which had always scared Ron, "I'm more concerned about where the Marauders are at the moment."

Ron nodded, "Like we have any way of knowing." There was a rapping on the far window that made all the Aurors look at the spotted owl that made the noise. Harry rolled his eyes, _Aurors are way too paranoid._ One of the older Aurors let the bird in, it soared immediately over to Ron and Harry who took the letter from the package, and the bird had left again.

Harry took a brief look at the writing and groaned, "He has Goyle, no wonder he hasn't been causing any trouble with the werewolves lately." He opened the letter and allowed Ron to read over his shoulder.

_Harry, _

_I am sure you have noticed by now I have taken your parents, godfather, and friends Dora and Remus Lupin hostage. I want you to come to the graveyard you were sent to after the tri-wizard tournament at noon. Then I will start killing them one at a time every half hour. And come alone._

Harry read it three times before setting it on fire in his hand watching it burn into a pile of ash in his hand. Ron looked at him worriedly, "Harry, you have that gleam in your eye you always do when you're about to do something stupid, dangerous, deadly, or all three."

He looked down at his watch, ten thirty. Harry gave Ron an exasperated look, "I will not let them die, I'm going no matter how-"

"Stupid it is to do so." Ro finished for him.

"Yes." He said and began apparating.

"Harry you know you aren't supposed to…" Harry had already disappeared with a small pop, "Apparate… Oh well, he has more important things to worry about."

As soon as Harry was in the cemetery he hid behind a headstone that had a large chunk taken from it, probably from his fight with Voldemort. He began looking at his surroundings, he could hear voices on the other side of the stone, perhaps thirty feet away. It was a large group, quite a few were pacing, others talked, and there were a few voices he recognized. When he stopped listening he opened his eyes only to realize there was a skeleton in front of him, _man this place is a dump_. He shook of the familiar feeling of death and concentrated on the living.

He turned into his animagus form of a small black cat and began sneaking towards the group of dark wizards to get a better. He jumped on top of a headstone and sat curling his tail around him, and watched. The five Marauders were easy to pick out, the clearing that had been claimed had four headstones in the middle, all of them but James were facing the weakly defended side of the clearing that he would enter through. The problem was that there was twenty, no, nineteen wizards that would disagree with him just walking in, untying them, and walking out with them.

He stretched and jumped off the headstone and behind a nearby statue, looking for all the world like a regular cat and turned into a human. Harry reached into his pocket to grab his wand, but he found nothing. _Of all the days to bloody well forget my wand, it has to be the one day it could be helpful!_ Rolling his eyes he told himself he could protect himself perfectly well without a wand- hopefully. With one last sigh he emerged from his hiding place and made his face emotionless and entered the camp.

As he walked in the camp he was surrounded by about half of the dark wizards, the one he knew to be the dark lord appearing right in front of him. They all looked on the verge of laughing, he took the moment to check on the Marauders, "Are you guys all right?"

"We're not dead yet." Sirius called over.

"I can't see!" James yelled.

"Shut up!" The other four said simultaneously.

"Doesn't matter anyway," The lord said walking closer rather menacingly, Harry couldn't help but wonder if he'd mastered the evil laugh as well, but knew it probably wasn't the best time for questions like that, "In an hour I will kill them if Potter doesn't arrive. I asked for _him_ not some random person he felt could be killed instead of him."

_Don't punch him yet, don't punch him yet, don't punch…_ He was trying really hard not to be insulted at this, "He sent me because he doesn't think it will take much to take down a mediocre bad guy." One of the Marauders, he didn't notice which, let out a low whistle as if to say 'burn'.

"So he sent some low life hippie to fight outnumbered twenty to one?"

"My hair is _not_ that long."

"Whatever, anyway, perhaps I can get some use out of you… Do you know where Harry Potter lives?"

"Yes."

"Tell me and you'll be a hostage rather than dead."

"Is there another option? I don't like the sound of either of those."

"Goyle, will you do the honors?" The dark lord motioned for an all too familiar face to step forward with his wand drawn, the only difference was that he had more wolfish features. _It's an improvement in my eyes._ He cast the cruciatus curse on him with a thin smile on his face. He had learned to fight the spell years ago and soon had the burning pain reduced to a light tickle and allowed himself to chuckle.

"Goyle, of all people I would think you would want to cause pain enough to make it hurt. But I find it actually quite pleasant." Goyle's smile had officially been wiped off of his face, he was pushed away by the dark lord.

"How can the curse not affect you?" The lord was angry.

"I'm not sure, but I am curious as to why you didn't do the curse yourself Peter." He said back, there were several angry yells from the hostages.

"Peter is the new dark lord?" Harry answered in the positive as Peter's face turned red enough to match any of the Weasley's.

"That's enough!" He pulled something from his belt, presumably his wand since Harry had seen it there earlier, and held it against Harry's throat, "Any last words you annoying prat?"

"What's going on?" James asked.

"Peter just drew a knife and is holding it to Man's throat, now shut up!" Lily yelled back.

Harry looked at him as if confused, "Why with a knife?"

"Huh?" Peter replied.

"You have your wand, don't you?"

"Yes."

"Then why kill me with a knife?"

"Why not kill you with a knife?"

"It has muggle written all over it, just doesn't have that dark lord feel to it."

"But I want to kill you with a knife."

"Why?"

"I want you to have a slow and painful death."

"You could do that with a wand too."

"That's not the point!"

"It's the whole point actually-"

"Shut up! Do you have any real last words?" Peter was losing his patience, but he had stalled for enough time to come up with a somewhat plausible plan.

He moved his hand to a better location, "Just one." His voice was even, "_Titiglio!"_ His hand ran into Peter, but the spell knocked him several feet away and knocked all of the dark wizards from their feet, he got in a few other spells, but all of them were running away anyways. In a few minutes Harry alone stood in the clearing with four sets of eyes on him, since James was still facing the other direction. With a heavy sigh he went over and began untying them.

They stood slowly, apparently sore from being in the same position for about two hours, James was still upset about not being able to see anything and was grumbling about it quietly. He was glad to find they all had their wands in their pockets and they had just been bound to tightly to get them. As much as Harry wanted to, he didn't have the time to catch the dark wizards to retrieve wands. They all seemed up for tracking them down, but he blatantly refused to let them.

"Don't you think you've had enough excitement for today?" He said pointedly.

"It wasn't exciting at all, I didn't get to see anything." James said, again.

"Oh, stop acting like a three year old." Lily retorted rolling her eyes playfully.

"I am not acting like a three year old." He argued.

"Sorry mate," Sirius said, "But you're proving her point." James stuck out his tongue.

"Mr. Prongs would like to submit he does not act like a three year old."

"Mr. Moony would like to claim otherwise due to the previous behavior of Mr. Prongs."

"Mr. Padfoot agrees with Mr. Moony and would like to add that it's not our bloody fault you were faced the other way."

"Are you bleeding?" Lily shouted looking at Harry.

He froze, then slowly lifted his hand to his throat, when he drew it back there was a red fluid on it, "It appears so, Peter must have nicked me on accident while he was threatening me."

"Yeah," Dora said, "It wasn't like you weren't provoking him, if you don't mind me saying it, you were a smart-ass."

"Better than being called a dumbass." He said grinning as he wiped away the blood with the hem of his cloak, "Besides, 'tis but a flesh wound."

"Your throat is bleeding!" Dora reminded him, louder than necessary.

"I've had worse." He replied, thinking of the numerous quidditch matches he'd spent time in the hospital ward after.

"Liar." James said jokingly.

"This place give anyone else the creeps?" Remus asked.

"Yeah, two reasons for it." Harry told him, "First of all, it's a cemetery, there's even a skeleton over there. Secondly, right over there is where Voldemort was resurrected. If you know where to look you can find some blood on Tom Riddle the First's headstone from Harry's sacrifice." They had all heard about the ressurection in more detail on slow days at the Auror's Office.

"That would explain it, but _Peter_ a dark lord?" James asked.

"He blames others for bad things happening to him, doesn't realize it's his own fault. Because he died after saving Harry he blames him, and he will continue until one or the other dies." _It is easier to talk about things in third person_, Harry thought as he said this.

"So now what?" Lily always had to ask great questions.

"You guys are going home, to what will be a very disappointed seven year old from what I hear." He said remembering how eager Teddy was to do everything.

"Two things, why are you sending us home, and why is Teddy upset?" Remus asked dryly.

"It's our policy to give the day off to those who have a death threats given to them. And Harry went to make sure you guys were all right, Reggie wasn't sure how safe leaving was going to be so he cancelled the flying lesson." He answered easily. Would he ever be able to talk to them in first person again?

"What about you?" Lily asked staring at him with eyes that used to be his, but that had been what seemed like ages ago…

"I have some personal business to attend to, enjoy yourself." With that he apparated away, the Marauders soon returned home to find Teddy grudgingly playing a game of chess with Reggie, who motioned he was letting him win. The last thing they needed was for Teddy to be any more upset, his hair was already a bright fuchsia color, when it turned red his magic usually came out, and not in a good way.

The Aurors office was now empty other than Ron who looked sincerely glad to see Harry. He watched as Harry walked over and he casually said, "So no one died?"

"I was close to killing several of them, did you know Goyle is in league with them?" Harry asked with his best attempt to stay calm.

"For a month or so. Is your throat bleeding?"

"Yes, but I'm fine."

"You've gotten really good at healing, why haven't you-"

"No wand. Forgot it."

"That explains why Ginny more or less freaked when I told her what was going on." He mused, "What's the plan now?"

"I need to go talk to my Aunt and Cousin, could you put a few extra charms on the Burrow and your place, it would make me feel safer." He was now scribbling on a piece of parchment. Ron nodded and apparated off.

Hedwig was unusually good at sensing when Harry needed her, after calling out the window she had arrived to deliver his letter. After she flew off he apparated to the park near Privet Drive, and walked briskly to the house that had served as his prison for sixteen years. He broke his stride slightly to wave at Ms. Figg before heading up the driveway, and then to the porch. He knocked on the door, his Aunt was always telling him to ring the doorbell, but he hated doorbells.

After a minute the door opened a bit, and a blonde woman appeared, he couldn't resist saying, "Trick or Treat!"

She just stared at him for a full minute without noise, then sighed saying, "Aren't you a bit old for trick or treating?"

He let a thin laugh, "After what I have to tell you you're probably going to wish I was just trick or treating."

She motioned for him to enter and sit on the couch while closing the door behind him, "I suppose Dudders should be here for this." Harry nodded.

It was no more than a minute later that Dudley was downstairs smiling, which soon changed when he saw the look on his cousin's face, as he sat down he commented, "It's never good news when a wizard comes to your house without warning and looks unhappy."

"And this time is no different." Harry replied as his Aunt came back into the room with lunch for them all. She seemed normal (for his Aunt), then took a double take.

"Are you bleeding?" Her voice had kept it's usual shrill pitch when she was saying something any louder than a normal talking voice for her. Their talk was subsided by five minutes while Petunia ran to the bathroom to get a couple band-aids for the cut on his throat.

When they were all settled Harry began explaining the situation, starting with when Peter had come back and ending with the morning's events. They were unusually calm during the discussion, asking a question or two here and there, but nothing unreasonable. When he finished Dudley said, "So we're doomed."

"No you aren't." Harry argued.

"That's what it sounds like." Petunia barged in.

"You are both extremely pessimistic, and this coming from the boy who spent his childhood locked in a cupboard. You should just have some extra spells on your house for protection."

"Let's go to the safe house." Dudley said remembering the rustic cottage they had stayed in during the second war.

"No, 'tis a silly place." Petunia said after an awkward moment of silence.

"I was going to suggest a Fidelius Charm." Harry said, followed by a ten minute explanation because Dudley wanted to know 'what the bloody hell is a Fidelius charm?'

"Are there any restrictions on those who can be secret keepers?" Petunia asked.

"Unfortunately yes, they have to have magical blood in them. Usually just wizards, but house elves and goblins work too." Harry replied.

"What about squibs?"

"It should work fine, but why do you need to know?"

Petunia and her son exchanged glances, Petunia finally answered, "I have become good friends with Arabella and would feel safe trusting her as secret keeper."

Harry's mind blanked, then he felt really stupid. How could he forget Ms. Figg? In ten minutes Arabella was over and they were discussing the spell, Ms. Figg eagerly agreed to be secret keeper with what little magic she had. The spell took nearly half an hour to set up, but it went fairly smoothly, and Harry left around two-thirty and apparated home.

However, things at the Marauders place had gone not nearly as smoothly. They had attempted to tell Teddy what was going on, and apparently he had been told a great deal about the second war. He wasn't exactly reasoning either because of his anger at missing flying, his hair had turned the color of a newly painted fire truck, that was when his magic was unleashed a bit violently. James glasses, a mirror, three vases and a glass of water exploded, leaving several people with cuts and Teddy extremely embarrassed.

"That's very similar to what inspired Titiglio." Teddy said quietly.

"What got you mad that time?" Remus said repairing the vases against the will of both of the Blacks who were saying they looked better that way.

They could barely tell his face had grown redder through his hair that he had mad into a longer version of a Beatles haircut that covered his face, "I was three, I didn't understand why I didn't have parents."

Remus froze, he remembered what Harry said about Teddy before he was born and he'd been trying to run off to escape it. _Why aren't you sticking with your own kid…_ It had pissed him off at the time, but how would Tonks have answered that question if he had left her? Everyone was easily distracted by Hedwig rapping at the window, she held a slip of parchment in her beak with very little writing.

_Dear Marauders, _

_I've heard you escaped from the dark lord with help from the Man, but I would like to take a precaution to stop this from happening again, you are now to floo to work, preferably Ron's office. Tell Reggie that he should floo to the meetings too. _

_Harry_

"That's unlike him," Sirius said, "Short, sweet, to the point, no full names, no description whatsoever."

"Look how messy his writing is," Dora said calmly, "He must have been in a hurry."

"So, was he really here this morning?" James asked.

"Yep, he was really worried too." Regulus said smiling, glad Teddy had been eager to help keep the prank going, Harry had instilled that Marauder trait in him. Harry pranking the Marauders themselves, it was the prank of the century that they would all laugh about later…

Harry had soon arrived a short distance from his house, it was well hidden in the forest and had about every enchantment known to wizards, and some not very well known at all protecting it. He could have simply flooed there from his Aunt's house, but she never had warmed up to the idea of flooing, and he, for once, obeyed her wishes. It had a Fidelius Charm on it, and Harry was the secret keeper. To anyone he didn't wish to tell about it the house would seem like an overgrown stump that some teenagers had carved a door into. To someone he had told the door opened to their large, spacious house. After arguing a name for some months they had finally decided to name it the Stump.

The house was seemingly quiet for this early in the afternoon, but he was quick to find reasons for this. Jay was in one of his quiet moods where he just wanted to draw or stare at a magical picture for hours, and today it was drawing. Second was Ginny, who was watching protectively from an armchair with her arms crossed and was now glaring at him. She stood up and began walking over as he closed the door, "What kind of idiot are you?"

"What exactly do you mean by that?" Harry asked tentatively.

"What kind of moron do you have to be to walk into the hands of a man who wants to kill you on the slim chance you aren't recognized by him, his lackeys or your own family in order to save said family without even telling his wife who has been worried sick ever since told you were going on said trip!" Ginny yelled, she had always been loud, but had never hated the fact worse than now.

"A pretty stupid one." Harry admitted and heard a distinct snickering from the spot on the floor his son was at. After switching to parseltongue he asked him, _"Just whose side are you on?"_

They had discovered Jay talking to a boa constrictor in the forest several months before, ever since then they had realized parseltongue develops a lot faster than human talk. Jay giggled, _"Whoever's side is winning."_

"_I resent that."_ He hissed at the boy, who returned to coloring as if nothing had even happened, he switched back to English, "Sorry Ginny, I was to caught up in what was going on to realize I'd forgotten to tell you about it."

"Thank you for admitting that." She said much less angry than before.

"Do you forgive me?"

"Admit you're stupid again."

"I, Harry Potter, hereby announces he is the world's number one stupid git."

"I forgive you, though I don't think you're quite the stupidest git in the-" She trailed off staring at him strangely, "Why the hell do you have Disney Princess band-aids on your throat?"

"What?" He tore off the band-aids his Aunt had put on him, sure enough there were Princesses on them, he groaned, "Oh that evil witch…er, muggle, whatever. Peter nicked me, my Aunt said it was bleeding and put band-aids on it I would have healed it, but-"

"You don't have your wand" She finished dryly holding it out to him.

"Thanks," Harry said using a quick healing charm to heal the cut, "So other than being worried sick, how was your day."

"Mildly interesting, I don't think we have to worry about Jay being a wizard."

He eyed her suspiciously, "Why?"

"He found your wand."

"Oh no, what did he do?"

"It's in his room, I would be very thankful if you got rid of it." She was saying it to plainly for Harry's like, which meant she was fighting to keep a straight face. He sighed and began walking to his son's room and soon realized Ginny had picked up Jay and was following him with a smirk. _There is no way this can be good._ He got to the right door and swung it open, and was instantly shocked.

It was about the size of a queen sized bed, black with a thin layer of fur covering it's body. It's legs were lazed around it in a way that suggested it was relaxing for the moment. From it's mouth were two large fangs. It was a-

"Big spider!" Jay yelled, it was probably the best description of it.

"No shit." Harry said staring at it, "Ron would have a stroke if he saw this." With a simple wave of his wand Harry returned the spider to normal size, he heard Jay groan.

"He's obsessed with spiders, he's been drawing them all day." Ginny said, "Ron's going to love it."

"Note to self, when Ron's around, Jay doesn't get a wand."

"When Ron isn't here, Jay doesn't get a wand."

"Jay doesn't touch a wand until he's eleven, agreed?"

"Agreed." They shook on it while Ginny held Jay in one arm.

(A/N: Another chapter that's been in my head since the beginning, and even better than the original. Tell me what you like, hate or would like to see, especially doing with Bob. Okay, it's all just a ploy to get you to review, at least I have the decency to admit it I warn you, the next chapter will be shorter and mainly letters. Lemonbomber out, yo!)


	13. Chapter 12

(A/N: Chapter twelve! Like I said, this will be mainly letters to get us to the next important date and will also include a birthday. I should also tell you this is looking to be about twenty chapters at the moment. To answer some of your questions, I agree, thank you, of coarse, partly, yes it will be soon, and Shut Up! Now back to the actual story.

Disclaimer: Do not own anything recognizable.)

_Dear Harry, _

_Thank you for having us floo to work, I'm not fond of the prospect that this could happen again. We're all fine and would love to her from you._

_**Teddy was extremely unhappy about his cancelled flying lesson and we got to see his magic for the first time. Don't worry, we're all fine, although several objects in the room did explode, the funniest of them being your father's glasses. He has a scab under his right eyebrow and refuses to let anyone touch it.**_

_He also seems unhappy that he missed you being there. Please don't take our lives being threatened as a reason to give yourself up to the enemy._

I'm just curious, do you mean that you and Draco get along as well as us and Snape? And you're right, I almost wish Gell was evil, but then we would probably get killed too…

**Thank you for assuring me my little brother isn't hanging out with evil people. How's Jay doing by the way?**

**I am not little!**

**Yes you are.**

**I wish I could do to you what I did to Sev…**

**What did you do to Snivellous?**

**Not telling.**

**Please?**

**Ask Harry.**

**What did he do to Snively?**

Please tell us!

_We would be happy to go to the Christmas party, who all is going to be there? We are happy Jameson _Jay _will be there._

_With love, _

_Lily, _James, _Remus, __**Dora, **_**Sirius ****and Reggie**

_Dear Marauders,_

_You have no idea how glad I am you're alive. Frankly, your first deaths were more than enough for me. You're referencing the Second war with the giving myself up thing, aren't you? I knew exactly what I was doing the whole time, and I'm alive, aren't I? And dad, I hope you aren't proud of the scab Teddy gave you, especially since it would take forever to brag about, 'My son's godson was blah blah blah." Too time consuming, just let someone heal it._

_Don't let Teddy think I forgot his birthday, his present is attatched._

_For me and Draco's relationship, it was hate at first site. Started off on the wrong foot and spent quite a bit of time in school trying to get the other in trouble. Everything's going fine between us now, seeing as he fears me, but can't hate the person who has saved his life four times. And it's nothing like Snape and you guys, this is hatred that's loathing from the very deepest part of what little heart Snape has. _

_As for what Reggie did to him, I think it's his business to tell you. Though I will let you know it has to do with a game of truth or dare (really just dare, with a truth thrown in every once in a while), Filch's cat Mrs. Norris, half a pound of cat nip and an enclosed area. Reggie, you are a truly horrible person, but you video taped it, so you are hereby forgiven._

_The Christmas party is going to be D.A., the Order and family. And will be fairly scary considering there's going to be you guys and the twins, All of Hogwart's greatest pranksters in one convenient location. We're doomed._

_Love,_

_Harry_

All of the Marauders, which now included Teddy and Reggie since they were always there, were laughing by the end of the letter. Sirius was first to be able to speak, "You actually have the ability to make a good dare, Reg."

"The video tape was an awesome way to record it, Snape will be covered in cat scratches for weeks, and he has classes." Reggie was grinning as broadly as James ever did after a good prank.

"It's not funny." Lily tried to say, but she was plainly out voted.

"What exactly was the dare?" James asked.

"Simple," Reggie replied, "Step one, let Mrs. Norris have five minutes with catnip, step two, have Snape take catnip away from Mrs. Norris. Step three, watch Mrs. Norris go medieval on Snape's arse."

This caused more laughter, in which all three original Marauders gave him a hi-five and Sirius gave his approval, "Nicely said Mr. Black."

"Thank you Mr. Black." He replied in a mock gentlemanly tone.

"Wow," The birthday boy said after opening Harry's present, "It's a foeglass, but it has weird words on the sides."

"What do they say?" Dora asked watching Teddy caress the palm sized mirror.

"It doesn't make any sense."

"Say it anyway." She urged him.

Teddy gave her a look as if to say _I warned you_ and began reading the words etched into the fine silver frame, "Tutela de gens quisnam desiderium infit quisnam loquor malam." The mirror shone and Teddy quickly dropped it in surprise, he made no move to pick it up

Now everyone was confused, Remus asked, "Is there a note?"

Teddy picked up a discarded slip of parchment and read aloud, "Happy birthday, for your gift to work properly you will need to read the words engraved on the outside, it will make it register for you and your blood relatives instead of danger in general. I should warn you that it will shine very brightly when this happens. Stay safe and I will see you at Christmas, Harry."

"Clever," Remus said when it was done, "It's probably a lot more accurate this way, besides, it would probably go off every time I was in the room because I'm a werewolf, foe glasses consider werewolves foe."

"Harry was probably thinking of that when he got it, and he probably got it partly due to his fear of what happened a couple weeks ago." Sirius said.

Dear Harry, 

I think dying once was enough for all of us for a while, we have no death wishes. And yes, I did let Lily get rid of the scab.

_You said you gave yourself up during the second war, no one's been able to explain what happened, or why we're alive for that matter. Could you explain it?_

_Teddy did enjoy his present, but we don't even recognize the charm you put on it._

_**He's happy nonetheless, but he decided to read the note after saying engraving.**_

**Malfoy **_**fears**_** you? Since when? And how could Snape hate us so much. Either way, because of what Reggie did to him I finally accept him as a brother.**

**Shut up.**

**You shut up.**

_You aren't talking, it a letter!_

_Mr. Moony would like to thank you for pointing out that the Christmas party is a perfect lace for pranking._

Mr. Prongs agrees heartily with Mr. Moony.

**Mr. Padfoot cannot wait for Christmas.**

**Love,**

**Sirius, ****Reggie, **James, _Lily, __Remus, __**and Dora**_

December eighth the Marauders, Harry and Ron were investigating a call made about the location of Peter, about the fortieth in a month. Like usual Ron and Harry we're looking over the sheet that gave the supposed information about Peter by leaning over Harry's desk. The Marauders walked in to the office, James asked, "What wild goose chase are we going on today?"

"We're going to investigate… a…" Ron was looking at the Marauders with wide eyes and his mouth partly open, Harry looked at them and immediately found the problem and cleared his throat to keep his composure. Ron wouldn't be able to avoid laughing quite that easily.

"Ron," Harry said, "Why don't you make sure Creevey and Weasley don't need our help today?"

Ron now had his lips pursed to keep from laughing, but he nodded and left the room a bit quickly to seem normal. James, Remus and Sirius looked confused, but the girls were smirking, which confirmed Harry's belief that they were the ones responsible for this. Sirius asked, "What's wrong with him."

"Nothing, he just suffers from involuntary spontaneous sounds and movement of the face and body." He took a deep breath, "I'm just curious, have you guys looked in the mirror recently?"

This confused them even more, Remus asked, "What?"

"Just answer the question."

"Not in the last half hour."

"That's what I thought." He pulled out his wand and with a quick flick a mirror was suspended in air in front of them. They were very suddenly angry, which could be explained by the heavy make up on their faces, the girls burst out laughing. Harry made the mirror disappear.

James, the more livid of the three finally yelled at them, "It's not funny!"

"You're right," Lily said grinning broadly, "It's hilarious." This was followed by a short playful dual between the two groups that Harry ended by putting a barrier between them. And seeing as the Magical law enforcement did need help, Ron and the girls helped them while Harry and the guys went on the scheduled mission.

_Dear Marauders,_

_So I heard the guys have developed an interest in wearing make-up, I apologize for having to inform you that men are not allowed to wear make-up in the department because dark wizards do not take them seriously. Not that you guys are serious anyway. I would like to congratulate the girls(and Reggie, if he helped) on another great prank._

_The final battle of the second war and why you guys are alive is closely intertwined. It is also too complicated to explain in a letter. Perhaps at Christmas or soon after._

_The reason you don't recognize the spell on the foeglass is because it was invented at the beginning of the year and very few people know about it because it is extremely advanced magic, it took me twelve tries to get it on that mirror, and I invented the spell._

_And Malfoy has feared me pretty much since I began saving his life. He knew I could take him easily, and Slytherins never take well to being outpowered. That's why many turn to dark magic, because it's very powerful, but they never take time to understand it, and they die because of their own stupid mistakes(like Voldemort of Crabbe)._

_And the Christmas Party is December 24__th__ at five o' clock. We haven't decided whether it will be in the Great Hall or the Headquarters for the D.A., but probably the latter because of the students, so wait in the entrance hall._

_Love, _

_Harry_

(A/N: I know, it's short, but the next chapter will be long enough to make up for it. And the engraving on the foeglass says 'Protection from people who wish he who speaks harm' in latin. And for those of you who have been waiting for them to find Harry, you should be very impatient about the next chapter. You can express that impatience in a review.)


	14. Chapter 13

(A/N: Here's the much anticipated chapter 13. Thank you for telling me how impatient you were, it's definitely encouraging me to get this done faster. At the end I have a bit of a surprise for you.

Disclaimer: Do not own Harry Potter)

"So, are you going to tell us?"

"Tell who what?"

"Us."

"Okay, what do you want us to tell you?"

"You know very well what we want you to tell us."

"Oh, do I know what you think I know you want us to tell you?"

"For Pete's sake!" Sirius finally yelled at the man who was now making it very obvious he knew what they wanted to know, "Are we Aurors?"

The Man and Ron, who were sitting on Ron's desk, shared looks. Ron answered without any emotion, "Sorry can't tell you."

"What do you mean, 'can't tell you'?" Lily shouted.

"Harry told us not to." The Man said just as dryly as Ron had.

"Why?" It was James turn.

"He wants to tell you himself, tomorrow." The Man finished. This was met with pure joy from the Marauders, who were just glad Harry had no reason to keep hidden anymore, "So, if things go well we'll see you here again on the first."

"Can we ask one question before leaving?" Dora asked.

"Technically you just did, but you can ask another." The Man said genially.

"What is your name?" But of coarse, the curse remained. Another of the top six Aurors came in and did some quick shadowhand, The Man followed him quickly. After he left Dora asked, "Will we ever get to know his name?"

"Yes," Ron answered, but he looked pale now.

"What's wrong?" James asked.

"What the Auror was saying." Ron answered, "Peter has started attacking people. He killed eleven muggles in Surrey."

"Oh, great." Lily sighed.

"It gets worse, Harry's Aunt and cousin live in Surrey. Thankfully he set up a Fidelius charm with their house. It doesn't matter that the killed were muggles either, once dark lord start killing they don't stop on their own."

"Someone has to stop them." Sirius finished for him.

"Pretty much." Ron said and cleared his throat, "And on a completely different note, Merry Christmas!"

The next night all seven of the Marauders were rushing to get ready, Reggie had confused everybody by saying he wanted to 'see the show', which just confused everyone even more. When they were finally ready to go they started the process of flooing, Dora offered to take Teddy through and he looked insulted. When he was asked why his answer scared them.

"I've been flooing alone for two years already."

"Where have you been flooing?" Dora asked.

"Harry's, it's the easiest way to get there because of all the safety measures."

"Okay, just remember, we're going to the Three Broomsticks." Remus said. Teddy went first, then Dora, Remus, Lily and James. Which left Regulus and Sirius.

"You first." Sirius said.

"No, you go."

"Ladies first."

"Then go already!"

"You are so much more of a girl than I am."

"Am not!"

"Come on, everyone calls you Reggie, that's a girl's name."

"Is not!"

"Just go before I hex you!"

"Fine!"

"Merry Christmas!"

"You too!"

A minute later at the Three Broomstick all seven of them had arrived James couldn't resist asking, "What took you guys so long?"

The brothers looked at each other, Sirius answered, "We were being brotherly."

"Right." They began walking towards the castle, occasionally sharing stories about when they were in school. Eventually they did get to the Entrance Hall where quite a few people were waiting to figure out where the party was. Several people had checked to see if it was in the Great Hall, but it was empty. Finally they saw two red heads walking down the stairs.

"..still can't even tell us apart." One said.

"She never really has been able to." The other said.

"Well, you'd think she'd be able to seeing as you only have one ear."

"She just points out our hair is too long."

"Com on, our hairs shorter than Charlie's."

The twins seem to notice there were other people there and grinned, "Wonder why they're here."

"The party isn't here, is it George?"

"Didn't think so Fred."

"Well, come on all of you."

"Follow us." The crowd did so, talking with others in quiet voices. Until about the third floor when Neville joined them. Most had heard about his seventh year and wanted to ask about how he was doing since.

"I'm the Herbology teacher, and somehow got roped into being head of house for Hufflepuff. I'm personally fine with it, but Snape is less than tolerable, especially since his run in with Mrs. Norris. He never liked me, but he didn't like most of the Gryffindors." He said.

"Even Harry?" Said one of the women from the Order.

"Oh, he hated Harry. Fifth year he was being borderline cruel to him, we're all surprised he even passed."

"So where are we going?" Lily asked.

"It's awesome," One twin said.

"Headquarters for the D.A." Neville said as the other one was about to speak.

"A.K.A. the Room of Requirement." The other twin added.

"And it could look pretty crazy, I heard Luna is the one in charge of decorating." Neville said.

"Good news is no mistletoe, we asked Harry-"

"He said something about her believing in Nargles."

"What ever that bloody means." The twins told them.

"Here we are." Neville said when they reached a large door on the seventh floor, the twins opened the door in mock politeness, and more than over exaggerated it. The room past the door was exactly how the members of the D.A. remembered the practice room being, except there was a large Christmas tree on the back wall, several tables, a long buffet like table, and an over abundance of red Christmas decorations. And the place was lit entirely with candles that burn white or red, and a lot brighter than they should have.

A lot of the group dispersed to see family or friends they hadn't seen in a while, the twins left again to make sure there weren't still people in the Entrance hall. The Marauders weren't really sure where to go. Sirius was cracking up, "Look at all the red hair, even without those two."

Sure enough they saw a man and woman, Molly and Arther Weasley, two men in about their thirties that were red-headed with a white-blonde woman and a small blonde girl who was about Teddy's age. Another red head was talking to a couple people in the Ministry who looked bored to the verge of death. And of coarse there was Ron with his wife Hermione.

"What?" James jumped, they all looked to see a small black haired boy hugging his leg. James was a bit freaked out, but was hiding it fairly well, "Who might you be?"

The small boy looked surprised, as if expecting someone else to talk, he cocked his head to the side and said, "G'mpa James?"

"You're Jay?" James said after nodding.

"Jameson Orion Potter!" A woman yelled, Hermione was running forward and picked him up, "I thought I told you not to run off."

The boy looked seriously apologetic. Hermione rolled her eyes, "Ginny wasn't kidding when she said he was hard to look after. What did I expect, Harry's son after all."

"So that is our grandson." Lily said smiling.

Hermione shifted Jay to her left arm and shook Lily's hand, "Yes it is, and I'm Hermione Weasley. And before you ask, yes I am pregnant. I had to hit Fred earlier because of it."

The Marauders laughed quietly and then were completely distracted James who was putting names to faces with ease, giving both regular names and nicknames. He ended with Teddy, Hermione put him down so he and Teddy could play, Bill and Fleur's daughter Victoire soon came over too. James was finally up to asking a question, "So where is Harry?"

"Work," Ron had joined the group, "Don't worry, Ginny's gone to yell at him, that's why we're watching Jay."

"So are you going to tell us if we're Aurors?" Sirius asked.

"Nope."

It was then Ginny walked in the door with a group of other people and found them immediately. She saw the three children playing and said to the group of eight, "So I see they have met they're grandson. Was he any trouble while I was gone?"

"He found them." Hermione said pointing to the Marauders.

"So he sneaked off?"

"Yes."

"Figures, he's been going through a fit lately where he thinks he can take care of himself, you found him, so no harm done. Usually only Harry can find him." Ginny was no smiling broadly, "Get comfortable, Harry should be here in twenty minutes."

Half an hour later the Marauders were talking with the Longbottoms, having realized the small children were fine they had been just reminiscing. Neville had also walked up and told them he had lost track of his wand and asked to be told if they saw it. The Man came up to the group and smiled, "Congratulations, you're all Aurors now."

The smiles faded from their faces, Remus got himself in control first, "I thought you said Harry was going to tell us."

He kept a straight face, "Yes I did."

"And he hasn't told us yet." James said slowly.

"That point could be argued." He said in the same tone. As they thought really hard he ignored the people laughing behind them and counted down _three… two… one…_

"Are you saying that _you're_ Harry." Lily said, the rest were waiting for his answer.

"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't." Harry replied.

"Prove it." Sirius said, Harry lifted his left hand where thin scars read _I must not tell lies._ Remus, Dora and Sirius looked shocked, James and Lily merely looked confused.

"Remember these, I got them in my fifth year in Detention with Professor Umbridge."

"Yeah we Remem-" Dora was cut off by a pitched scream and several people yelling from the other side of the room.

(A/N: I said this was going to be a long chapter, but then my friend Geniusgirl gave me this idea. See you in a few days, flames will get you nowhere. And yes, I am evil.)


	15. Chapter 14

(A/N: Lemonbomber sincerely apologizes for the last chapter, and claims the urge was too large to resist. Hopefully you will forgive me at the end of this chapter… Where did I leave off?

Disclaimer: Don't own anything recognizable.)

The scream took a minute to recognize, finally Harry asked, "Was that Ron?"

"Was what Ron?" Frank asked from a few feet away.

"The high pitched scream, sounded like him." Harry continued.

"Uuh, Harry?" Percy said as he walked up.

"Yeah?"

"There is a rather large arachnid over there, do you know anything about it?" Percy asked.

"Then that yell must have been Ron, didn't Neville say he misplaced his wand?" Several people nodded, Harry rolled his eyes, "I'll take care of it."

He crossed the room and there was no mistaking the huge spider and what appeared to be Ron, although he had passed out. _One of the best Aurors fainted because of a spider, a big spider, but a spider no less._ He stopped Arthur who was about to bring him back to consciousness, and he shrunk the spider back to normal size before he let Mr. Weasley resume. When Ron realized what happened he turned so red his hair looked pale. Ginny caught his eye as if to tell him what she thought happened, he agreed and said he'd take care of it.

He walked a ways away from the large group and changed into parseltongue. _Jameson!_

The boy crawled out from under the nearby table, _Sorry._

_Do you have a wand?_

_Yes. _He held out a wand that Harry took from him and looked over it briefly.

_Where'd you get it?_

_I found it under a table._

_Do you remember our number one rule?_

_If you're going to steal a cookie from mum don't get caught._

_Yes, of coarse. But I was talking about the _other_ number one rule._

_I don't get a wand._

_Exactly, I'm not mad, just don't do it again. I'm sure you gave Ron a heart attack._

_I'm sorry._

_Okay, I'll give Neville his wand back, why don't you go play with Teddy and Victoire._

'_kay._

Jay went over to watch Teddy playing wizard's chess with Victoire, who he was obviously letting win. He looked over to see Neville by his parents, and headed over to return the wand, it was new since he had returned his father's wand to him when he regained his sanity the year before. As he handed back the wand he shook his head, "It was understandable when it was a toad, but your _wand_?"

"Shut up." Neville muttered, though he was noticeably embarrassed. He then walked back to his parents, godfather and the rest of the Marauders.

"We have some questions for you." James said as he took a seat near them.

"I would suppose you would." Harry replied mildly, he hated being asked questions, but he had told himself they deserved to know.

"How did you make yourself look different? Polyjuice potion? Glamours?" Remus asked.

"None of them, a combination of things actually, what would you like me to explain first?" Harry began.

"Okay, let's start with the glasses being gone." Sirius offered.

"My glasses kept getting in the way, I switched to contacts. They're little plastic glasses you put directly in your eyes. Less of a hassle that way." He answered taking one out to show them and then putting it back in.

"And your hair?" Dora asked, he wished his parents would talk, they looked betrayed.

"I let it grow out starting four years ago, as part of going into hiding." Harry replied.

"And your eyes?" Lily asked.

"Always the one to ask the hard questions," He sighed, "They faded on their own. Eyes show your age, not your physical or mental age, it judges your age on what you've seen. The more you see the more they fade." He smiled weakly, "And I've seen a lot."

"What happened to your scar, I assume everyone wouldn't be lying about that." James said after Harry had finished.

"It's a simple trick, really. After the Second war I got tired of begin famous, but mainly the reason I was famous, having everyone I know die." He reached up to his forehead and pulled at something invisible, that turned out to look just like plastic wrap, but it revealed his scar, " It's a Velum Scete, usually used to hide scars. It works perfectly for my purposes."

Lily asked another question, "Sirius, Remus and Dora say your patronus was a stag-"

"I'm personally flattered." James said, Harry was noticing the group had lost the suspicious edge to them that they had carried since he had told them, which was a relief.

"Yes, we know James. Anyway, the patronus you've shown us is a lion, why?"

"Another hard question, I have two patronuses. Two memories, equally happy, but each with different shapes." He took a few steps back and cast a patronus charm which brought forth a silver lion and stag, he vanished them just as quickly, "The stag was for a memory of my parents I wasn't even sure existed. The lion is my memory of my wedding, Ginny's animagus form is a lioness. Any other questions?"

"Yes," They all said simultaneously, James finished with, "Why?"

"What do you mean why?" Harry asked.

"Why hide? Why not tell us who you were? Why hide as the Man?"

"I was wrong, mum isn't the only one with tough questions." He thought about wording for a minute, "The morning you all came back I was nervous, so I decided to do this for two main reasons, and a couple minor reasons. First was to see if you could figure out if it was me, I felt bad about it until Halloween. It was best you didn't know it was me. Secondly, I'm not stupid, I knew everyone would have said something about me, most of it not all that nice. I wanted you to learn who I am now, not who people think I am."

"Well, that makes sense, what were the underlying reasons?" Remus asked.

"The best of them is that I wanted to be comfortable being around you before having to hear you say my name, having lived through all of your deaths. It's hard to talk to someone you know was dead, and they had it really bad." He pointed to a young couple that Remus recognized as Cho Chang and Cedric Diggory, "The fact that if you knew I was your son you may be reluctant to learn during the apprenticeship. And the reason with the least merit, it was fun."

"You call lying to us for six months fun?" Lily accused.

"No!" Harry said pointedly, "I didn't lie once, I bent the truth, talked in third person, played dumb and dropped very unhelpful hints, but I didn't lie."

"It explains a lot, you being Harry." Dora said, "You were able to fill out our files so quickly and without our help, because you already knew everything about us."

"And you knew about how I died in detail because Winky had told you about everything." Regulus added with a smug look.

"How long have you known the Man was Harry?" Sirius asked him.

"You aren't going to like my answer," Regulus was now laughing, "Remember when Harry sent us each a letter about your guys' apprenticeship and about my group? It was in his letter to me.

"And you didn't tell us!"

"Of coarse not, he asked me not to."

"And if he told you to jump off a bridge you would too?"

"No, I thought I would help him with this because he proved my innocence, notice I'm not in Azkaban." Regulus said proudly.

"That's why you kept laughing wasn't it?"

"Yep."

"Just curious, those questions we asked you in our last letter-" Lily began.

"I did say I would answer them, let's start with what happened during the final war," He took a deep breath, "Okay, Voldemort was attacking Hogwarts, blah, blah, blah, Said he would leave the Hogwarts alone if I gave myself up to him, hadn't killed the snake horcrux yet, went to find him. Found him in the Shreiking Shack, watched him kill Snape in order to get possession of the Elder Wand, left before Snape actually died. I knew he was a double agent and was on our side, went up to him…"

He thought for a moment and edited out some parts that weren't entirely necessary, "He gave me a few of his memories, a few to show me that I could trust him, which I do. The last memory was one that was a conversation between Snape and Dumbledore. Apparently, the night that Voldemort had tried to kill me he was trying to make his last horcrux as well. Since the whole 'mother's love' protection backfired the curse on him it still had the necessary sacrifice and made a horcrux. To be specific, it made me a horcrux."

The Marauders looked surprised at this, but made no sound as he continued, "So I went to Voldemort knowing if I didn't die Voldemort never could. So I went to him in the Forbidden Forest…" He edited out another part for their sakes, "It was harder to let him kill me with Hagrid there, but I had accepted that I had to die. I didn't pull out my wand and I let him hit me. And I was dead, I talked with someone who was dead that helped me sort everything else, by willingly giving myself up I had preserved a deep magic that kept me alive. And I played dead for a while before revealing I was alive to kill Voldemort."

"So you came back because you let yourself be killed." James said.

"Yes." Harry replied.

"That's pathetic." Sirius said laughing.

"Killed by drapery." Harry said flatly.

"Point taken." His Godfather admitted.

"That explains why you're back." Remus said openly.

"But what about us?" Lily finished.

Harry sighed, "There is a reason people only eve make one horcrux, it stretches out your magic and transforms it. Since he had his soul in eight pieces his soul was so crudely defined it was barely even human and it was unstable. Since your magic relies on your soul for Unforgivable curses, they began to collapse. His cruciatus curse didn't even hurt me when he thought I was dead. When he destroyed the part of his soul in me it shattered the ability for his Avada Kadavra curse and it began backfiring, and something about the Dark Mark's application process made the curses of most of his followers backfire as well. It took time, seven years because of the number's magical properties, but everyone is back."

"Well that's…" Dora started, "Complicated."

"It took me two years to figure it out. That was around the time I began more vigorous experimentation with spells, wandless spells are ones that deal solely with the power of your soul and little else. Momories and such make it nearly impossible." He said in an almost whining voice.

"Poor you, can't invent new magic, poor Harry." Sirius mocked.

"So you are Harry?" A very professional voice said behind Harry, it was Kingsley. Harry didn't exactly look happy about the Minister's intrusion in the conversation.

"Yes, _sir._" Harry said acidly turning to Kingsley.

"I have some things I would like to talk about with you," When Harry didn't move away from his parents, "In private of coarse."

"Of coarse." Harry followed him off and the Marauders watched them walk away.

"This probably isn't good, they hate each other." Remus muttered.

"No kidding, I've never seen Kingsley talk down to anyone like that." Lily replied.

They could see the two of them, but hearing was impossible. The two of them looked very grave as they spoke, and then suddenly Harry laughed, obviously in control of the conversation with ease. They were all wondering what the two could be talking about.

Harry watched the back of Kingsley's head, _this can't be good. He's been trying to track me down for years, I'm probably going to get yelled at. _He kept a straight face, laughing, being a smart alick or anything else would just make the entire matter worse. Kingsley stopped walking and turned to face him when they got to a semi-empty part of the room, "So you've been hiding in plain sight." He said in a low voice.

"Yes, it's something no one expects you to do." Harry replied neutrally.

"That would be how you kept it up so long without me noticing." He was frowning, having taken it as a direct insult to his years as an Auror, "But that isn't what I wanted to talk about with you, Potter."

"Then what is?"

"You in general. To be more specific, your disregard to the rules against unforgivable curses, the constant addition to lists of spells, and your blatant disregard for the lives of others." Harry had seen this look before, skepticism, hatred and the want to do something to stop it.

"First of all, only the full Death Rings curse is illegal, there is nothing to make it unlawful to constrain prisoners with it. And I've only added six spells, far greater wizards have made far more. And I don't blatantly disregard the lives of others, I blatantly disregard the lives of murderers." He really hadn't meant the last part to sound smart, but it cam off that way.

"Are you saying you have never hurt an innocent person on the job?"

"Never, you can check my records. And while you do that I will be tracking down Pettigrew to stop him, and last I heard he is considered a KOS criminal. And I will do my best to ensure that he is captured and killed."

"I don't care if he's been promoted to Kill On Sight, you won't be on the mission."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You're fired." It was times like these he wondered how such a quiet man could sound almost murderous.

It was then Harry broke the second of his rules for dealing with this, he laughed, "Do you really think it wise to fire me?"

"How would it be unwise to get rid of an annoying child star?"

"I didn't ask to be famous, I don't even like it. Though by firing me it would put you in an interesting situation. Yeah, I'm sure if you looked hard enough you could find a few mistakes that you could use as excuses to fire me, but how would others see it? The minister fires the best Auror, head of department, and the man who killed Voldemort because he finds him to be an annoying prat. You would lose a lot of credibility with that, maybe be taken out of office."

Kingsley was unmistakably angry with this, "Are you threatening me?"

"No, I'm stating the facts. Does your decision hold?" Harry asked feeling confident.

Kingsley's lips grew thin, "You're free to carry on as usual for now. Once I find a way to get around that hassle it's a whole different story."

"I wouldn't expect anything else." Harry said and walked away seeing a large group of the D.A.. They all had lost their happiness of seeing each other again, but Harry remembered something he'd heard at the office today that would get them all to smile.

"I can't see how you all cannot be happy, today of all days." Harry said finding himself near the middle of the group, which would serve his purposes quite well.

"Why?" Lavender asked from a couple layers back in the group, "Because it's Christmas Eve?"

"Yes, you could happy about Christmas Eve." Harry admitted, "But I was talking about… wait, only four people know about it. I can tell you later, you'll find out eventually." He made to walk out of the group hoping to be stopped, and was pleased to have the twins grab his arms and push him back to the middle of the circle.

"Sorry mate," George said.

"Can't let you leave after an introduction like that." Fred added.

"Besides, if we're going to find out anyway-"

"Why not tell us now?" The rest made it obvious that they fully agreed with what the twins said, and hearing the noise quite a few of the Order members had come over.

"Fine, I'll tell you," His plan had worked, but with this news it could hardly fail, "As you know Peter Pettigrew attacked seventeen muggles yesterday, but me and a few of my colleagues were able to get there in time to capture six of his followers. One of which being Goyle, a werewolf. They were all brought to Azkaban to stand trial January 2. Since there have been so many occupants recently most had to share cells, including Goyle, and those of you that know the lunar calendar know last night was a full moon. Goyle killed his cell mate, and later himself because he was in such a small space."

"And we should be happy because of this why?" Parvarti Patil asked, "Other than another evil wizard got killed."

"Because of who his cell mate was," He paused slightly, "It was Deloris Jane Umbridge." The room was immediately filled with cheers from the deceased's old students and fellow teachers alike. Even Severus Snape, who claimed Dumbledore was forcing him to attend the party in the first place, was allowing himself to smile at the thought of the hated woman being ripped to pieces by a werewolf. Harry had been right, it had brought a renewed tone of happiness to the party.

The party lasted another two hours, in which there were the new pictures of the Order and the D.A. to compare with earlier pictures, a lot of talking and reminiscing, a couple well done pranks and singing. The pranks were actually pretty entertaining, first was the twins' prank on the original Marauders, which could have been avoided if Harry had wanted to. Unfortunately for them he had a very sudden interest in the floor as the twins slipped them nosebleed nougats, and then was in too much of a laughing fit to say anything else. The Marauders got back at them by doing a spell to make their voices high pitched for the rest of the night.

The songs were extremely interesting, they had everything from "Lean on Me", "Live and let Die", and "I Will Survive" to songs by Greenday, Cold Play and the usual assortment of Wizard songs. It was about ten thirty when most people started leaving, the Marauders and The Potters were some of the last because of some difficulties.

"Has anyone seen Teddy?" Dora yelled, people shook their heads. She'd been looking for him for twenty minutes, but the headquarters seemed to have countless hiding places. She caught Victoire on her way out to ask if she knew where Teddy is. The girl just smiled and pointed to a table with a red tablecloth that brushed the floor. Dora rolled her eyes and made her way to the table and gently lifted the tablecloth up to see her son curled up under it.

"What are you doing under there, Teddy?" She asked softly.

"Hiding." Came the reply.

"From what?"

Teddy pointed past her to a candy cane lying on the floor. She looked around it hoping there was something other than that in a close enough vicinity that would be easier conceived as scary, but there wasn't anything. _My son is afraid of a candy cane? _"You're afraid of the candy cane?" She asked trying not to laugh.

He nodded with wide eyes.

"What scares you about it?" She entreated.

"It has little bugs called Cavus Bestia on it that destroy your teeth." He replied.

"Who told you this?"

"Luna." When he saw the skeptical look on her face he added, "Hermione said it was true."

Dora was about to say something about it being wrong but decided to say something else instead, "They can only do that if you eat them, come on, let's go home."

Teddy crawled out from under the table looking relieved and they walked back to the Marauders, Remus gave her a questioning look. She mouthed quickly _I'll explain later._ He seemed satisfied with that. Before she knew it Harry was asking them if they knew where Jay had gotten to.

"Shhh…" James said quietly, "He's been asleep here for the last half hour."

Jay was curled up in James' lap with one hand curled around Lily's pointer finger. Jay was carefully transferred from his grandparents to his parents, waking up for half a second as his hand was taken from Lily's finger only to be urged back to sleep in parseltongue. Then he was asleep on Harry's shoulder, and Ginny was scolding him in a quiet voice.

"He is never going to learn to speak English fluently if you keep encouraging him to speak parseltongue."

"He's only two and a half, few two year olds can speak fluently, besides, he knows I'm the only one who understands him." Harry replied.

"What if he uses it in public? People will think he's evil because of it."

"Are you implying I'm evil?"

"No, but some people think you are."

"Not because I'm a parseltongue."

Ginny just glared at him for a full minute before turning to say good-bye to the Marauders, Harry did the same and wished them a Happy Christmas. Lily and James talked it over and were able to agree, it was their best Christmas yet. They hadn't realized that they had been watched the whole time, and as he walked away several thoughts went through his head.

First was that Lily was as beautiful as ever, followed directly by James being just as annoying as ever. Then he realized how all of the Marauders were so happy together, as Harry had tried to tell him. Then was something people had tried to say to him before, but he had never been able to admit it before seeing them next to each other. Harry and James were different in many ways, James was still a kid, Harry was mature. And now that he didn't look like James he even found Harry tolerable. James would never have the same status.

"I trust you enjoyed your time Severus?" Dumbledore asked breaking him away from his thoughts.

"Yes headmaster." Snape said detached from the conversation.

"Is something bothering you?"

"Quite the opposite. If you'll excuse me, I would like to turn in for the night."

"Don't let me keep you from your sleep, Severus. Good night." He said calmly.

"Good night." He walked towards the stairs to get to the dungeons. Was it possible I was wrong about Potter? The younger one at least? I'll have to know more to answer that. Oh well, that's a though for another day.

(A/N: Ahhh… aren't phobias fun? Hope you got all of the explanations you need for now. And yes, killing Umbridge was necessary. And for Snape lovers there will be a few mentions of him in later chapters. Lemonbomber out, yo!)


	16. Chapter 15

(A/N: Sorry about the wait, but I was having a major case of writer's block. I will admit that the candy-cane-phobia was inspired by my friend Aisling13. And now I will move on to the regularly scheduled chapter.)

The last two months had passed far too quickly in Kingsley's view. As Harry had suggested, he pulled the file of every case he had ever worked on, only to find that his record was pristine. In fact, more than half the time he used unforgivable curses he was preventing harm to innocent people. When some of the older Aurors heard about the investigation a few came in to vouch for him saying that he only uses illegal curses when every other option is worn out.

He sighed, he had the records pulled just an hour after talking to Harry, he had no time to change them. And it was impossible for him to have Imperioused his old teachers. He couldn't even say Harry was wrong, after talking with a few officials they had admitted that to fire Harry would be like asking to be removed from office. Even though he wanted Harry gone, he didn't want it that bad. He'd be watching him though, as soon as he made a mistake he would be gone before he had the chance to sweet talk his way out of it.

Meanwhile, the Aurors department was swamped. Peter had graduated from muggles to half bloods, and even a couple of purebloods. Part of one of the walls had a board with pictures of all of Peter's known followers, forty-one, there was forty-two if you counted Peter. Now there wasn't a day to waste, there were constantly missions that everyone was at, sometimes split into four groups. Harry was usually pulled away for one thing or another, but today no one had even seen him, and several wizards were waiting for instruction.

He came in nearly an hour late muttering to himself in parseltongue, which people were growing used to. He looked tired, not as if he wasn't sleeping, just as if he had a week's worth of tasks to do in a day. When asked what was wrong his reply was in a disgruntled tone, "They kept me in court because they didn't believe he was evil, they had me explain about ten different cases I have seen him kill or use an unforgivable curse." He rolled his eyes, he'd been in court a lot lately. And with the stress he was under he was just glad not to have to hide anymore.

"So it was pretty much the usual court formalities?" Ron asked.

Harry smiled weakly, "Pretty much." A paper plane flew in the room, heading straight for Harry, who grabbed it with ease. It was a memo, and Harry read it with an irritated look on his face. His face suddenly lost emotion and he grew pale.

"Harry? You look like you just saw a ghost." Lily said in a worried tone.

"I'd be fine if it were a ghost, ghosts are easy to deal with." He said slowly without taking his eyes from the parchment.

"Are you okay?" Sirius asked.

"I'm not dead yet, but four people might be if we don't leave quick enough. Peter's taking the Malfoy Manor. Sirius, you can go with dad, I'll take mum and Remus, Ron take Dora." Before they had even registered what was happening hands had been taken and they were apparating. They were on the lawn on the Malfoy Manor, which looked perfectly normal, other than the door standing wide open.

Seven wands were drawn as they ran up to the house and went through the door as several people began yelling. They saw Narcissa running up the stairs as Pansy followed about ten paces behind, with a quick motion Harry sent Ron to guard the stairs. Around the corner to the main room there was shouting, the remaining six gathered around the edge to listen.

"- and you call yourselves former death eaters?" A man yelled, it wasn't Peter, the Irish accent ruled that out. They saw Harry mouth 'Bob Schmarmy'.

"We aren't evil, so you can bloody well leave us alone!" Draco yelled, he was noticeably farther away than Bob was even by volume alone.

"We will not join you." Lucious agreed in a calmer tone than his son. Harry peeked around the corner, doing a head count. In simple shadowhand he told them _Eight, no, nine of them, cornered them. Facing the other way. _

"My orders were to have you join or have you killed," Bob continued, "And you have chosen poorly. Kill them as you please." Curses flew, but none were from Peter's followers. Three of them were immediately hit with stunners, the other petrified, and Bob was hit with an Expelliarmus. Two of the remaining ran, the others were hit with other curses.

Bob unfortunately had better reflexes than the Aurors had expected from the potato-loving wizard. He grabbed Draco's arm and reached for a dagger he had in his belt with the intent of having a hostage. Before the others could react a black and white tiger had ran past them and was now aiming to jump on the wizard and his hostage. At the last second a paw pushed Draco aside as he landed powerfully on Bob, who of coarse let go of Draco and his Dagger thoroughly frightened by the tiger that now had him pinned to the ground. Draco had rolled out of the way in time to be safe with the worst injury being a possible bruise on his arm from being pushed by the feline.

The Marauders moved in, also confused by the very helpful if not oddly colored tiger, the black and white were switched. Lily helped Draco up and made sure him and his father were okay, Dora and Remus were putting their captives in one location and James and Sirius were helping the tiger, Harry was nowhere. As soon as they had pointed their wands at Bob the tiger got off of him and changed into a human, and to their surprise it was Harry. Harry pulled out his wand and quickly bound Bob and quickly perceived the Marauders were staring at him.

"What?" He asked.

"We thought your animagus form was a house cat." James said slowly.

"Well, sort of."

"And you were just a tiger." Remus said.

"A black tiger with white stripes." Lily elaborated.

"Yes, but neither are really my animagus form, but can be if I so choose." Harry agreed.

"How the bloody hell can you-" Draco began before being cut off by James.

"That cat thing Hagrid showed us." James said, you could almost picture the light bulb floating above his head in the on position, "The day we came back, it changed forms."

"The shinx, right?" Dora asked.

"Yes, my animagus form is a shinx. They say it shows your true nature, shinxes are very protective and can be vicious, Gin says that any other animal would put that to shame. Oh, and mum…" He blushed, "Truffles says hi, Hagrid doesn't know Truffles is a guy."

"Awkward..." Lily admitted. The two Malfoys were watching this with a slight look of horror on their faces, not really understanding any of this.

Harry noticed them, "You can leave if you want, we'll just be taking these guys and leaving." Lucious took the offer immediately and left the room, Draco on the other hand was glaring at Harry.

"Potter," He said slowly.

"Which one?" Harry said indicating his parents.

"You!"

"Oh right… Malfoy." He said almost mocking Draco.

"I don't need you to swoop in and save me every time something goes wrong. I'm not some damsel in distress!" Draco yelled.

"You play the part rather well." Harry mused, Draco looked ready to kill.

"Why did you save me again? Why did you save me the first time?"

"I don't like people dying when it's preventable. And are you upset that I saved your life?"

"Yes! I mean no… sort of!" Harry waited as he got himself together, "I'm glad I'm alive, but I'm not glad that you were the one that saved me."

"Again."

"Shut up!" Draco looked like he was going to pull his wand, but decided against it and stormed out muttering some very unpleasant things about Harry under his breath.

"That's Draco Malfoy? Your so called enemy?" James said suppressing laughter.

"Now _that's_ pathetic." Sirius said.

Draco looked back into the room quickly to say three words, "Killed by Drapery."

"It was a magical veil in the department of Mysteries!" Sirius cried out.

"So you admit it was girly drapery." Harry said quietly with his eyes dancing, "We should get back, I'd like to have a talk with Bob."

An hour later, after taking all of the cursed wizards back, and then there to Azkaban to await trial, the Marauders were ready to interrogate Bob. Several Aurors were holding bets on which ones would get how much jail time, a few ignored the fact dementors were no longer used and bet they'd get the Kiss. It had been decided Harry would be the only one in the interrogation room, he worked best on his own anyway. Ron and the Lupins had been called out somewhere else, the others were going to watch the interrogation. The interrogation rooms here were the same kind you saw on the police investigation shows on TV. Two rooms, one with a table and several chairs connected via one way mirror to a room where others watched.

Harry walked in calmly with Bob's file of wrongdoings and sat across from him as Bob watched a fly flying around the room. Harry was set to begin, "Bob." There was no reply, or even a sign that Bob had heard Harry. So he tried to be a bit louder, "Bob." The Irish man continued to have his eyes fixed on the insect, which was deeply bothering Harry, after calling Bob twice more he lost his patience.

"_Quell fligan!"_ There was a spark on the fly, and it gave very similar results to a bug zapper. Bob looked at Harry for the first time, and he was on the verge of tears, Harry just rolled his eyes, "Now that I have your attention, can you tell me what your name is?"

"You killed the bug." He said quietly.

"That's your name?" Harry said flatly ignoring Bob's complaint.

"You're a meanie head."

"Just answer the question."

"Bob Schmarmy."

"Your full name, please."

"Robert Patrick Schmarmy."

"Are you affiliated with the dark wizard Peter."

"Who's Peter? I don't know anyone's name." Bob said cluelessly.

Harry just stared at him then began explaining what Peter looked like.

"Oh, him!" Bob said, "The Dark Lord. What does affiliated mean?"

Harry was about to strangle him, but kept his temper. Sirius told the Potter's that it was good that Harry had learned to control his temper, otherwise Bob would be dead. Harry finally got the composure to answer, "It means to work for them."

"Oh… then I am." Bob answered.

"Are you with him because you have similar interests or because he is bribing you?"

"What does bribing mean?" After an explanation of the word Bob finally replied with, "I am being bribed by the Dark Lord."

"What has he promised you?"

"Potatoes." Bob replied happily. Harry was just staring at him, there was a full minute of silence that Harry was trying to find his tongue, but he really hadn't been ready for that answer.

"So you have spied, committed treachery, threatened people and murdered because you were promised," Harry paused shaking his head slightly, "potatoes."

Bob was looking at him straight on but he didn't answer, "Sorry, I wasn't listening." Ten minutes later after Harry had repeated the question and explained the five words Bob didn't know, he was given a nod of yes to his original question. Harry thanked Bob for the interview and left the room with a seemingly patient look.

Once in the room with his parents and godfather he relaxed into a look of impatience and hit one of his hands on his forehead and kept it there. After a minute he spoke, "Why does every lacky of some evil person have to be as dumb as a stick?"

"They aren't all stupid. remember that scrawny kid last month, Nott I think it was. It took us twenty minutes to make it so he couldn't find a loop hole in our question." Sirius said, all he received in return was a glare from Harry.

"Okay, how come every person I've ever interrogated is as dumb as a stick?" Harry corrected.

"You're unlucky?"

"The world hates you?"

"You attract stupid?" The last was from Sirius, who _should_ have figured out by now that Harry could be rather mean when he was stressed or in a bad mood.

"That explains how you were able to find me so easily third year." Harry said dryly taking the paper from a quill that copied down everything said during the interview, it was noticeably longer than should have been necessary. Harry sighed, "He deserves to be in Azkaban, but anyone in their right mind would say he was too stupid to know what he was doing. You guys are free to leave, I have to go talk to a few people that are higher up than I'd ever want to be in the ministry."

This was another habit of Harry's that took getting used to, he did all the boring stuff. If a court case needed to be scheduled he would give the choice for them to go home, especially in cases like these when he had to talk to the Department of Magical Law enforcement, the Wizengamont, the minister himself if he felt necessary, the Prophet and a couple others they couldn't keep track of. Then again, he had told them this was his fault, and they were unable to convince him otherwise.

Unfortunately for them things would get very bad soon.

(A/N: Like I said, shooting for twenty chapters. Things get bad in the next chapter, and the one after that that may have a warning. Keep reviewing, some of you make me happy with your reviews, others… let's just not talk about them. Lemonbomber out, yo.


	17. Chapter 16

(A/N: Okay, here we go. Insert usual disclaimer here.)

Just as Harry had thought, Bob was claimed to be too stupid to be aware of his own actions, and therefore not arrested. This annoyed several people, the others they had captured were convicted and now all were in Azkaban. As time went on they found out more about Peter, and by May they knew enough to launch an attack. Harry had a hard time convincing Kingsley that it would work, seeing as Kingsley still hated him, this was very difficult.

"I don't think you need to waste people's lives and time with an attack. You are a defense force." Kingsley said evenly.

"Defense doesn't always mean waiting to be attacked, it also means stopping attacks before they happen." Harry was unable to keep a bit of agitation out of his voice.

"And Peter's have been few and far in between, what makes you think anything has changed?"

"Some information we were able to get last week from a captive."

"Do you trust him?"

"Normally, no, but under veritaserum, very much so."

"And you have sufficient evidence on an attack to make you act? If I remember correctly you have been reluctant to attack."

"I have, but now that they're going after…" he noticed a few people had congregated around who he didn't feel necessary to hear this, so he leaned in and whispered the location in Kingsley's ear. He got the reaction he needed.

"He can't be! I thought every protection was put on it?"

"He's found a way to get past. Apparently homicide isn't in the plan, but we know he won't be afraid to change that."

"When?" Kingsley asked finally giving in.

"The thirtieth, middle of the day." Harry answered.

"It's his birthday, we think he sees it as a monumental point in his career to attack there." Remus added. The rest of the Marauders were with him, they had all agreed that Peter didn't deserve to live, after they had seen him kill they had repeated it. James had gone as far as to say that no killer was a friend of his.

Kingsley was contemplating with a stern face, finally he sighed, "Considering the stakes here, I give my consent to attack. Just don't do anything stupid." He walked away.

"Well, we've got twelve days, let's get to work." Harry said turning, they had seen he was skilled at getting what was necessary done. They had noticed his efforts increase after April, it had scared them all. Peter had found the place near the Stump, and Ginny and James were just outside of the security and had been found, James was nearly killed. Harry hadn't said a word about it since it happened, but his increasing efforts showed just how upset he was by it. They wouldn't want to be Peter if Harry ever saw him.

On the morning of the thirtieth the Aurors office was packed at six, the attack was planned for eleven thirty, but was tentative. Frank and Neville Longbottom were playing look out to inform them in case Peter arrived early. Quite a few people from other departments had volunteered to give a hand, and that as because they knew if there was more people the chance of death was lowered. They didn't want this battle to be as bloody as the Final Battle. The plan was to end Peter's attacks.

Harry and Ron had been arranging things all morning with other aurors, Harry was apparently planning something to give them an advantage. He had been in and out all morning and finally took a break when Lily yelled at him(which is an understatement) and finally got him to sit down and eat some breakfast, which sounded more like 'eat a piece of toast, dammit!' And he obliged, somewhat glad to be slowing down for once.

"Potter!" A voice yelled, easily recognizable as Kingsley.

"Which one?" All three of them called back, they had gotten used to this since it happened often enough.

"Harry, I need to talk to you for a moment." Kingsley digressed.

Harry launched into an explanation immediately, "I swear I'm doing nothing illegal! he said he was perfectly fine with it, and I don't think it's technically ill-"

"What are you talking about?" Kingsley interrupted looking confused, "I just wanted to know if everything was going as planned. What were you talking about anyway?"

Harry looked kind of suspicious, he opened his mouth but Kingsley cut him off, "Is it illegal?"

"No, but some may claim it's wrong to do anyway." Harry admitted.

"Will it cause any permanent damage?"

"No,"

"Do I really want to know what you're doing?"

"Nope."

"Have a nice day then," Kingsley said and turned leaving the Marauders shocked, Harry less so.

"He just wants to be able to claim he has no idea what I was doing when I did it, frees himself from blame when it comes. Though I doubt anyone would argue too much with what I did." Harry explained.

"What are you doing, anyway?" James asked.

Harry smiled, "I'm making a distraction, it wasn't too hard. I just had to teach someone a spell and make sure they are willing to perhaps die. That wasn't hard, considering who it will be."

"Who?" Sirius said looking impatient.

"I bribed him into doing with baked potatoes, that answer your question?" Harry asked dryly.

"Bob Schmarmy?" Said several of them in surprise.

"Yeah… but when you think about it makes sense that he's distracting them, he used to be on their side, but they only gave him raw potatoes." Harry rolled his eyes.

Remus sighed, "Remember the good old days when spies were smart and couldn't be bribed with food to switch sides."

"Yeah, I miss that." James agreed.

Several hours later… (From the evil guys point of view until the end of the chapter)

Hogwarts was as he had always remembered it, but he had told no one why he was really there. Most of his followers assumed he was trying to show the world he was a threat, perhaps taking a hostage, or launching a random attack, but those were all wrong. He felt the near death of Harry's wife and son and the deaths of twenty-eight other was enough proof he was a threat, there was no one close enough to Harry to take hostage, and he did everything for a reason. His reason for coming to Hogwarts for nostalgia, but he wasn't stupid enough to come alone, and without a headquarters they had all decided to come along.

Even as they apparated near Hogsmeade they knew something was wrong. They went through the Forbidden Forest quietly and to the edge near the lake, and Peter finally figured out what felt so wrong. It was a beautiful early Summer day, the kind he remembered spending lunch and breaks out sitting by the lake with his old friends. Everyone was usually outside, but today there was no one. Well, there was one person, unrecognizable sitting far away on the steps in front of Hogwart's entrance, but that didn't ease anyone's mind.

"I have a bad feeling about this." Nott spoke softly, everyone nodded including Peter.

"They couldn't have known we'd be here… could they?" Asked another of his followers, he was a newer one that he could never remember the name of, but for the moment he didn't care.

"Of coarse not," Peter said, only half believing it himself, "I only told three people about this beforehand, two are dead and the other is…"

"He was one of them that got captured a couple weeks ago?" Someone asked, but they all knew he had. They were all in quiet contemplation of the situation, if they knew their plans, should they try to leave, or try to fight? Peter decided quickly to leave and they began to make their way towards Hogsmeade, but were stopped by the figure who had been on the steps, who was now near the edge of the forest.

"Hello." Bob greeted in his usual Irish accent.

The whole group just stared at him for a moment, Peter asked, "Weren't you captured at the Malfoys?"

Bob's face was blank, he'd been a good spy, but his attention span was far from pleasing, and his fascination with bugs and potatoes… Peter got his attention and asked the question again.

"Captured by what?" Bob asked in his innocent voice.

"Potter."

"What's a Potter?"

"Potter is the guy we're fighting!" Peter knew he had to get out of there, and he never had had much patience with Bob. "Let's go!" He called to his followers, but Bob blocked his way.

"I learned a new spell, want to see?" After a few failed attempts and a bit of begging from Bob, Peter conceded to letting him show them his new spell before leaving. Bob mumbled a few words pointing his wand at several rocks on the ground. They immediately began to grow into over sized turkeys. Peter didn't know what to say, and neither did anyone else.

After several seconds he regained composure, "Come on, we don't have time for such silliness."

"What? Leaving so soon?" A voice said from behind his followers, a voice he really didn't want to hear, James. As he turned he saw it was not just James, but Sirius, Remus, Lily, the Order, most of the Aurors, even Snape. had come out. Between the Aurors and the turkeys they were surrounded.

He wasn't sure who had thrown the first spell, or for a while after that. All he knew is that there hadn't been a battle like this since the first war, sometimes he was on the dark side, sometimes on the light. When he noticed Sirius, James and Remus, along with the man who had saved them on Halloween, were all trying to get to him he did what seemed natural. He transformed.

A minute later he was at the edge of the forest in rat form watching the battle. He heard a purring sound from beside him that reminded him faintly of Potter's friend's dratted cat. He looked over his shoulder to meet the gaze of two emerald green eyes, and on the forehead a faint white thunderbolt. Peter was instantly scared and began running. And thus began another classic chase of cat and mouse, or in this case, rat.

(A/N: Next Chapter will finish the battle, which as you may have guessed will have character death, no one you'll hate me for too much though. Unless you're a big fan of… no, won't spoil it! Please review, it makes me want to hurry the next chapter.


	18. Chapter 17

(A/N: Okay, let's see, we have character death, a flash back, Harry being generally upset, and a secret, yep it's chapter seventeen. Warning: a bit graphic near the middle, but nothing too horrible. Enjoy!)

The battle had ended, few had died on either side. A large amount of Peter's followers had realized that they were no match for trained aurors, and with Hagrid, McGonagall, Dumbledore and a few other teachers to help them, the dark wizards really hadn't had much of a chance. no one had really been sure how to feel when Bob Schmarmy was picked up by the giant turkeys who ran into the forest with him. For all they knew, he was dead (he wasn't killed though, the turkeys announced him as their king and began a tribe of giant turkeys that worshipped potatoes, but that's another story). Two others were missing, Harry and Peter, but everyone could assume the two leaders of the battle were duking it out one on one.

An hour after the battle they were growing restless because Harry wasn't back yet, but soon after they saw him emerge from the forest. He was shaking slightly, limping on his left leg and had one hand grasped firmly around some mystery object. The Marauders went to him, his parents in front, to see if he needed help. He looked confused at the question until they pointed at his leg, "Oh, it's just a sprain, I'll be fine."

"Were you with Peter?" James asked.

"Yeah," Harry sighed looking at the ground as they walked towards the castle.

"Where is he? What happened? The two of you just disappeared." Lily asked Harry not seeing the look on his face of disgust.

"I left what's left of him in the forest," Harry said bringing surprised looks to their faces, "But he's hardly recognizable anymore." Lifted his closed hand and opened it, small bits of gray powder floated from his hand being wisped away by the wind.

"Are those his-"

"Ashes," Harry cut Remus off, "Yes."

"So, what happened?" Sirius asked.

Flash back!

_Coward!_ Harry had thought seeing Peter change forms in the middle of the battle and scurry off in the way only a rat could. With a quick smile he transformed into an animagus and quickly morphed into his favorite form, a black house cat. He followed the small rodent on his feline instincts, catching up with him quickly. It was only right that the rat was brought down by a cat. Peter had stopped by the forest's edge and was watching, not noticing there was a predator right behind him. He considered just jumping on him then, but what would be the fun in that?

He allowed a soft purr to echo out, a cat skill that had taken months for him to master. The reaction was immediate, the rat turned and stared for a moment, then upon realizing who it was ran deeper into the forest. Harry followed, content for the moment to just torment him. When they got to the point in the forest where it would be difficult to run as humans Harry caught up with Peter and knocked him off his feet. Peter changed back and pulled out his wand, Harry changed into a human and watched Peter's eyes grow.

"You're… no, no you can't be Potter…" Peter muttered.

"Why not?" Harry said evenly in a voice that though it was calm was much more intimidating than yelling.

"You saved them… I was so close to having you…"

"When I don't want to be found, I'm not. hiding in plain sight is half the fun."

"Your eyes… they change colors."

"My animagus form shows my true eye color, I'm not sure why. Do have anything left worth saying?"

"Y-you aren't going to kill me, are you?" Peter said, fearful for the first time since he came back, "You wouldn't…"

"Why not? I don't know a soul that believes you deserve to live. And after what you've done to my family I don't believe you deserve to live either." Peter shivered then began throwing curses at Harry, who was using wandless curses, both had been hurt fairly badly. Harry finally whispered, "_Kalen!_"

Using the curse on the mannequin had been easy, but it was almost sickening to watch the five rings of fire surround Peter. The next five minutes was Harry asking why Peter should be allowed to live, all Peter did was beg for his life and make excuses. Just because a man would bring himself down far enough to beg didn't mean he was sorry and should be redeemed. Harry looked into his eyes, he wasn't sorry. If it would hurt Harry or give him more power, Peter would kill again. Having decided Peter's fate he whispered the second half of the spell.

The scream was horrible as the fire cut into human flesh, the sight was worse, and the smell was almost unbearable. What surprised him was the look in Peter's face as he realized what was happening, that he had wasted his second chance, there was no coming back this time. His eyes wide with fear glazed over before the flames had chewed through his neck, and no matter how much he wanted to he couldn't pull his eyes away from the burning corpse. Harry's eyes burned from watching the fire, but eventually it burned out leaving Peter as just a pile of ashes. Harry had the strange urge to pick up the ash, as an afterthought he decided the Marauders deserved to see Peter one last time.

He wanted away from the body bad enough he wasn't watching where he was putting his feet and tripped painfully over a root, making his ankle throb. He could probably heal it, but he didn't have much energy left after casting death rings. So he limped to the edge of the forest where he was soon reunited with his family…

End Flash back!

The party afterwards was generally happy, after just short of a year the 'Dark Lord' (which most people called Peter as a joke) had been not only stopped, but destroyed. Some people joked with Harry that he should watch out in case Peter came back like Voldemort did, he was only able to respond with weak smiles. Considering how happy everyone else was Harry looked haunted, and it wasn't just because Nearly Headless Nick was hanging out near him.

"What's bothering you?" James said sitting beside his son, noticing once again that if you looked at them closely enough you could see a faint hint of green.

"What's not bothering me would be easier to answer." Harry replied staring blankly at the table he was sitting at. He sighed, "I'm tired of everyone being happy that I killed someone. I kill Voldemort they're happy, I kill a basilisk and they're happy, I kill Voldemort _again_ and they're happy. I kill Peter and they're happy." He closed his eyes as if imagining himself somewhere else.

"You should be happy he's dead too, he was trying to kill you."

Harry shook his head, "Doesn't make it any easier for me to deal with. Sure he deserved it, that doesn't make it right."

"You saved a lot of people's lives."

"You didn't have to see the way he looked as he died," Harry now turned his eyes to his father, there was something weird about them, "He was frightened, I've only seen one person that scared. My cousin when he was attacked by a dementor, and just like he was, Peter was helpless."

James didn't know how to help, he'd never seen Harry like this. Thankfully Kingsley strolled up to talk to Harry. He sat on Harry's other side and sighed, "I believe I owe you an apology." Kingsley began, Harry just stared at him, "We just interviewed one of his inner circle."

"And?" Harry prompted when Kingsley paused.

"Peter was planning on killing students, perhaps even Hagrid. I assume that's who Nott meant by 'the oaf'" Kingsley finished, still refusing to look at Harry.

Harry gave a half-hearted laugh, "That sounds like something a Slytherin would call him."

"Not all Slytherins are evil, Potter," Snape growled from behind him.

"Just the ones in my year, right Severus?" Harry said without looking at him.

"It's 'professor Snape' to you, Potter."

"Last time I checked, I wasn't a student, much less your student." Snape didn't answer, but just walked away, Kingsley followed suit soon after. It wasn't long before Dumbledore decided it was his turn to talk to Harry.

"You aren't happy about killing, are you?"

"Two things," Harry said defensively, "First of all, of coarse not. Secondly, I'm not some dumb teenage kid that needs everything explained to them. I understand the last time we talked face to face I was that naïve little kid living at the Dursley's, but I'm not anymore."

"I just wanted to let you know it's okay, it just means-"

"That I'm human." Harry finished.

"Yes, and you have something Peter never truly had-"

"Which is love. He had companionship but never shared the feeling of the willingness to die for the sake of a friend."

"Well, yes. Also I should have told you-"

"That the silver hand Vodemort gave Peter might kill him if he disobeyed, that Peter had a life debt to me, that if I caused him to disobey he would become angry and try to kill my family."

"And that-"

"Those Voldemort and his inner circle killed may come back to life."

Dumbledore stared at Harry, "You know my whole speech better than I do. I'm sorry for everything you said that I was going to say, which was entirely correct."

"And you are forgiven."

"And there is one thing I would like to ask you in private." Dumbledore looked at James who took the invitation to leave. When he was gone Dumbledore continued, "As you know, Ffrank Longbottom has been our Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher this year."

"I'm guessing the curse has struck again." Harry commented.

"Yes, Frank was weary when taking the job, and has made the decision to go into apprenticeship for becoming an auror."

"Which leaves the Defense post, once again, open. What about Snape?"

"He has already refused. Over the years I fear he has grown attached to the post. I was wondering if your department would have a volunteer for the job?"

Harry was fidgeting, "I'll need to talk to a few people first, but I have a suggestion…"

"And that would be?"

Two hours later!

Harry returned home, he had had interviews, meetings and immense paperwork to fill out that kept him at work until six. He was surprisingly glad to feel his son hug his leg as soon as he went through the door, he picked the small boy and went to find Ginny. Being careful not to be loud, the day had given him quite a headache and wanted nothing more than to let it go away on it's own. Ginny was found making dinner in the kitchen.

"Hi, Ginny," He said softly.

"Hi, thanks for the letter after the battle was over, I was nervous all morning about it." She said, She was stirring a pot with one had and holding their two week old son in her other hand. His full name was Albus, but both had decidedly began calling him Al.

"No problem," He shifted uncomfortably, "There's something I need to tell you."

Ginny looked up at him, "I know that tone. That's not a good tone. What's wrong?"

(A/N: Okay, two more chapters, one real chapter and an epilogue. Please submit all comments by reviewing!)


	19. Chapter 18

(A/N: yes, I know we're nearing the end, and unless I get a really good idea, there will be no sequel. Just so you know, I don't have issues with people saying they don't like my fic, but at least give me a reason, it's comments like 'learn to write' that make me upset and don't even give me a reason why my writing sucks. If you don't like it, don't read it. I'm not forcing you to. Now back to our regularly scheduled chapter.

Disclaimer: Don't own Harry Potter, or those two lines from the Lion King.)

It had been a five short weeks since Peter had been killed. There had been much to do for the Aurors, and strangely enough Harry had stopped going on missions all together. They had all thought this was to give them something to do, but he changed their minds when he had them go on another mission with Dudley and stayed behind. He always seemed busy too, like he was preparing for something, but he hadn't said a word about it to anyone if there was. Today they hadn't seen Harry at all, but Kingsley had just walked through the door.

"Have you seen Harry around?" Kingsley said, he wasn't especially happy about something.

"No, we're actually waiting on him." Remus answered.

"Could you tell me when he comes in?"

"When who comes in?" Harry said walking in.

"Harry, I need to talk to you." Kingsley told him.

"How convenient, there's something I was going to tell you today, you first." Harry replied in his usual brief way.

"I'm giving up, there's no reason for me to be able to fire you." He admitted, "And trust me, I've been looking."

"Okay, good to know. On to what I had to tell you." Harry shifted uncomfortably, "I quit."

"What?" Kingsley said after a moment.

"I'm quitting."

"But why? You're the best auror we have, head of department, and I've just told you I'm going to quit trying to get you fired, and you're quitting."

"Yes, it's complicated. I've talked with some people, and they all agree that my best option for the moment is quitting."

"That doesn't explain why."

The Marauders had joined Kingsley in watching Harry and were waiting for his answer, "I can't see well, and no corrective lenses can help me at this point, I'm half blind. I may not be smart, but I'm not stupid enough to be a blind Auror."

"How did this happen?" James was the one to ask this.

"I invented Death Rings shortly before getting contacts, so when I killed Peter it was the first time I used it while wearing contacts. I forgot then when burning humans…" Harry seemed overly disgusted by what he was saying, "Death Rings is a lot hotter, and I guess I was too close. Since contacts are made out of plastic they melted to my eyeballs."

It was silent for a moment, "Gross." Lily said looking worried.

"That's why you've stopped going on missions." Sirius added.

"So what are you going to do now?" Kingsley asked.

"I'm going to see if I can be the first teacher in who knows how many years to keep the defense post longer than a year." Harry replied with a half smile, looking not entirely sure of his decision.

"What's going to happen with the department?" Remus asked sensibly.

"Ron's taking over as head, then two people will be brought up so we'll have our seven best Aurors recognized instead of six. That will be James and Sirius. Lily, Remus and Dora will be training Frank and the two kids coming from Hogwarts during their apprenticeship. After that you would have to ask Ron." He started trying to look neutral about this, but it was obvious this hadn't been his preference.

"You want us to be top aurors?" James asked with a look of disbelief.

"I put your names up as suggestions, but I didn't get a vote as to who got in." Harry answered.

"Wait a minute," Dora said speaking for the first time, "All you've ever done is fight dark wizards and now you're going to _teach_? That seems like a step down to me."

"Just because all I've ever done is fight dark wizards doesn't mean it's all I can do, besides, one of the best times of my life was teaching the D.A.," He replied allowing himself to smile, "And if things go well, I'll be teaching Teddy, Victoire and my sons. It all works out."

"You've thought this out well." Kingsley said, "It's a shame to lose such a good auror."

"Stop pretending," Harry said teasingly, "I know you don't like me."

"True, so when's your last day going to be?" Kingsley dropped his act quickly.

"It's the thirteenth, right? Then the day after tomorrow, that way I can spend Jay's birthday with him." Harry replied after a moment.

"That soon? What happened to giving your boss two weeks notice?" Kingsley said looking mildly surprised, Harry never had been one to go with tradition, what would make his resignation different.

"Technically the Aurors work separately from the Ministry so I have no boss."

"Technically you're annoying."

"Only technically, that reminds me, I should tell Ron he's going to be department head."

"You haven't told him?" Lily asked.

"Must have slipped my mind." Harry said shrugging.

"Well, as slippery as your mind is…" James joked.

Harry laughed quietly as he walked off, "Oi, Ron! I have something to tell you."

The Stump, July 16, 2006

"For Merlin's sake, I thought Harry was kidding when he said you fainted when he told you that you were head." Ginny said with an exasperated look on her face. Ron's face was practically glowing red.

Jay was talking to Harry quickly in parseltongue, and Harry suddenly started laughing. Ron looked at him from across the living room. "What are you laughing at?"

"Nothing." Harry said in a voice to high to not be suspicious, but he elaborated, "It's not like James was calling you pathetic for feinting so much." Jay was now giggling from his spot on the floor between Ron and James, several others were trying not to laugh.

"I am _not _pathetic."

"Prove it." Harry said trying to control his laughter.

Ron stood up and tried to walk, but promptly fell on his face, and pulling James from his chair as well. It took a while to see that someone had tied their shoes together, and not neatly. It took roughly five minutes to get the knot undone, during which Sirius and Lily had tried to help, but stopped after Sirius had been kicked in the face. When they were finally untangled Harry looked at them, "You're both pathetic, you were pranked by a two year old."

"I let him prank me, I knew what he was doing the whole time." James claimed, this caused Lily to make a noise of disbelief from behind him.

"Right," Harry said in a mocking tone. When they got to the presents portion of the party Harry told Ron to stand by the couch as Jay was about to open the present from his father, Ron looked confused but did as he was told. He heard Jay give a scream of delight and when Ron looked at what he had received he grew pale then feinted, landing on the couch. Jay was holding his new present looking at it with pure joy.

"What it?" The small boy asked Harry without taking his eyes off the creature.

"Tarantula, in other words-"

"Big spider…" He said in awe.

Ron woke from his feint to see Jay petting the spider, and lost all of the color in his face, "Why did you have to give him that?"

"He likes spiders, and as much as he likes huge spiders, the only bigger ones are acromantulas, and that's just not safe." Harry replied.

"Harry's reckless, but not stupid." Ginny chimed in.

"Besides, the head of Aurors can't be afraid of spiders, this will help you get over it."

"Come on, I have to be fearless?" Ron whined.

"Not fearless, practically fearless." Harry corrected.

"Spiders isn't as bad as what you're afraid of." Ron accused.

"What's Harry afraid of? He's never so much as flinched as anything." James said.

Harry glared at Ron as he revealed Harry's fear, "He's afraid of peanuts." The room erupted in laughter.

"Yeah, because I'm allergic, plus they're creepy looking." Harry said attempting to defend himself, but that didn't work. At eight o' clock (p.m. of coarse) both Al and Hermione and Ron's daughter Rose had gone to bed, leaving the Marauders, Harry, Ginny and Jay. Ginny had suggested Jay go to bed, but he wanted to stay up because it was his birthday, or at least that's what Harry translated because he had spoken in parseltongue. Harry and Ginny shared a look before Harry replied in parseltongue, it was an answer that made the small boy very happy.

"So what book will you be teaching from?" Remus asked, this was followed by the rest offering up suggestions of different defense texts, Harry was quiet through this, and answered after Remus had restated the original question.

"None." He said simply.

"You mean none of the ones we mentioned?" Lily suggested.

"No, I am not going to be teaching from books. Period." They would have thought he was kidding, other than the fact he had a straight face.

"You're serious?" James said looking at his son with surprise.

Ginny nodded for Harry, "Umbridge would be roll over in her grave if she heard about this."

"She was the one who wanted Defense classes to never see anything but books, I'm pretty much going to teach this the same way I did the D.A., only I get to add tests and homework to it." Harry agreed.

"And you don't have to keep it a secret." Ginny added.

"Let me guess, you aren't fond of books?" James asked.

"Don't you remember what I said during orientation? I don't think you can successfully learn Defense from a book, it doesn't translate to real life." Harry answered as if it was obvious.

The conversation took several turns, all of them talked about eagerly, and by a quarter to nine Jay had fallen asleep leaning against Harry on the couch. Harry picked him up to take him to his room leaving the Marauders and Ginny. Lily finally ventured to ask a question most of them had been wondering about for a while, "I'm just curious, but why did you choose to live way out here?"

Ginny laughed, "Oh, let's see, privacy is the big thing. Major quidditch player and the Boy Who Lived, Died, and Lived Again living together makes it a place everyone would want to find. And neither of us is exactly fond of being famous. Besides, it makes our fights _so_ much more interesting."

"Wait, you enjoy fighting?" James asked specutively.

"Not fighting as much as how we _stop_ fighting." Harry said reentering the room and taking his place on the couch.

"We end arguments with quidditch, when making a decision, we seek, and when we're generally pissed off at each other we take a bludger and beater bats and try to kill the other one." Ginny explained.

"Unfortunately, Ginny's a better beater than I am." Harry admitted.

"Well, we should probably get going, we have work tomorrow." Remus announced.

"Of coarse, be nice to Ron on his first day, he gets nervous really easily," Harry said, "And give my regards to Teddy."

"Always." Dora said waving as the made their way to the fireplace to floo home. Teddy had been invited to spend the night at Bill and Fluer's with Victoire, which the Lupins had been nervous about. Eventually they decided that the two were too young for there to be anything wrong with it. The Marauders waved good bye and left.

(A/N: I'm sensing the last chapter coming, don't worry, there will be an epilogue too. The next chapter will be Harry's first day of school. Please review, but only if you have something constructive. And don't grade me! On one of my one-shots someone gave me a letter grade, it was a 'B', but still, I have enough to deal with since it's finals week…)


	20. Chapter 29

(A/N: As you know now, Harry is the new defense teacher. This is how his first day of teaching goes, and it's technically the last chapter in the story, but I will have an epilogue. Thanks for the ideas of a sequel, I might not make an official sequel, but maybe a series of interesting events with the characters. I hope you have enjoyed BFTD!)

Harry Potter goes from Auror to Teacher

That was the headline for September first's Daily Prophet, the following was an exaggerated story that the journalists had decided was dramatic enough for front page. All it did was make Harry decide not to buy the paper before getting on the Hogwarts express, he had considered just apparating to Hogsmeade, but he was feeling Nostalgia for his school days and decided to take the train instead. As he stepped on the train he decided to find the compartment he'd first met Moony in, it was empty. He leaned back in his seat and put his feet up on the seat across from him and watched the first groups of students arrive on the platform, finding it calming.

Three minute to eleven the compartment door was opened, three boys and two girls stood outside the door looking apprehensive, the girl in front spoke for them, "All the other compartments are full, could we share with you?"

Harry nodded to his students, sixth years by the look of it and straightened up putting his feet on the floor. Two of the boys and the other girl, who looked shy, sat across from him, while the girl in charge and the boy next to her sat beside him. The clock struck eleven and the train pulled slowly out of the terminal, Harry noticed that all five of them were looking at him curiously.

"Can I help you?" Harry asked politely.

The boy next to him spoke, "We don't recognize you, what year and house are you in?"

"I'm not a student, I'm the new defense teacher, Harry Potter." He regretted saying his name, all five of them perked up looking at him in awe.

"Professor Potter? The boy who lived?" One of the other boys asked.

"Please, call me Harry, I've never cared much for the whole 'Professor' thing. I hated it when I was in school. Now you know who I am, who are you?" He said.

"Prof- Harry," The girl in the lead corrected herself, "My name is Natalie Diggs, but my friends call me Nat, we're all sixth year Gryffindors."

"Leo Kentaur." The boy next to him offered.

"Caelum Volans, You can just call me Cae though." Saind the boy across from him who had black hair.

"Cygnus Erikson." The blonde boy across from him said with a weak smile.

"Cassiopeia Garner, but I prefer Cassi." The shy brunette in the corner said softly, "If you don't mind me asking, why did you quit being an Auror. The story in the Prophet doesn't make sense."

"The profit rarely does, I quit because I'm half blind," He explained.

Leo looked at him curiously, "You killed Peter with Death Rings, right?" Harry nodded, "And I heard you were using contacts, they melted to your eyes, didn't they?"

"Yeah, you're pretty clever." Harry commented.

Leo blushed and brushed his light brown hair out of his eyes, "No, I'm just a muggle born, I'm made fun of for it constantly.

"I personally don't see anything wrong with it, my mother and one of my best friends are muggle borns, both were at the top of their class."

"Nat's top of our class," Cae said.

"I think you know my cousin," Cygnus offered, "Ernie Macmillan, I think he was in your year."

"Yeah, a Hufflepuff. We weren't too close, but I knew him." The rest of the train ride was talking about family and friends they all knew, and most of the Hogwarts teachers that they shared opinions in. It was decided that Snape was a good teacher with a horrible attitude, but only after Harry had corrected them several times that he was not evil. They also talked about quidditch, Cassi, Cae and Leo were all on the team, Leo as Beater, Cae as Keeper, and Cassi was a Chaser. He was told later that Cassi wasn't usually this shy, but never got used to meeting new people. All too soon the ride was over and the students left him saying they couldn't wait for his first lesson.

There were a couple other teachers who always took the train or were supervising the process of departing from the train, this year it was Snape who was supervising, which meant he had to share the faculty carriage up to the castle. While waiting for Snape to finish his job he pet the two huge thestrals, who were happy just to be noticed. When Snape came he followed him into the carriage, and they instantly arranged themselves to be as far as physically possible in the small carriage. The thestrals began moving, and other than the small sounds they made it was a very awkward silence.

"I don't believe I ever thanked you." Harry said, which only got Snape to glare at him.

"Thank me for what, Potter?" Snape growled.

"For the help during the second war, even though everyone thought you were evil. You may be dark perhaps, but you're a far cry from evil."

Snape snorted as though this wasn't worth his time.

"If it helps any, I've never really told about anything from the memories you gave me while you were dying. I retrieved them from Dumbledore's pensieve and would be more than glad to return them."

Snape glared at him, "Why are you being so nice to me, Potter?"

"I'm not your student anymore, you can call me by first name like everyone else does. And truthfully, I don't see any reasons to have enemies when you could just as easily have a neutral friend." He dug through his pocket and pulled out a crystal vial with a silvery liquid in it, "Here."

Snape took it while not taking his eyes off Harry, "They're all in here?"

"Yes."

"Thank you… Harry." Snape said slowly transferring the vial to his own pocket. In Snape's mind he was trying to figure out what was going on, all he could come up with was that he had matured, which he had thought it was impossible for a Potter to do. In times like these the boy reminded him faintly of Lily, in any case he was right, why not be indifferent towards him instead of make enemies with the most powerful wizard in the world.

The carriage arrived at the castle and the two men got out and walked the familiar path to the Great Hall, it took some control to not go and sit at the Gryffindor table. Just as he had suspected there were three seats empty at the staff table, Hagrid's and two that were next to each other, Snape sat next to Flitwick, and Harry sat in between him and McGonagall. He watched as the students began arriving trying to keep track of who was at which table for future reference, after a while McGonagall left to get the first years and Hagrid came back moments after. He watched as all the first years were sorted and tried not to notice that many of the faces were watching him and not the sorting.

After the sorting was finished Dumbledore stood up to give his usual announcements, "Welcome to those of you who are new, and welcome back to those who are returning. As you recall, a list of items not permitted is posted on Filch's door, and the Forbidden Forest is off limits to all. On a happier note, I would like to introduce our new Defense teacher, Mr. Potter." Harry nodded in response to the applause, which lasted longer than he felt comfortable. "Without further ado, let the feast begin."

The feast was just as Harry had always remembered Hogwarts feasts to be. Though instead of talking through it he just listened to the various conversations at the staff table. He was glad that a majority of the students had decided to concentrate on more personal matters than ogling at him. McGonnagal turned to speak to him, "So, how does it feel to be up here?"

"Strange," He said truthfully, then smiled, "Then again, I rarely made it to the beginning of the year feasts anyway."

She smiled back, "Well, it takes getting used to. I remember my first year teaching, it was years ago. I wish you luck in returning next year."

"I hope I do, I've already made friends." This surprised McGonagall.

"Snape?"

"No, though I believe we're on a truce. On the train I met some Gryffindors, Nat, Cassi, Leo, Cae and Cygnus. They seem to be nice."

"Oh, _those_ five."

"Is there something about them I should know?"

"They enjoy trouble, very similarly to the Golden trio and the Marauders."

Harry grinned, "No wonder we hit it off so well."

The rest of the Feast was rather quiet and went by rather quickly, before he knew it the students were filtering out of the Great Hall. He stood up and saw Hagrid walking over to him smiling, "'Arry! Good to see ya."

"Nice to see you too Hagrid."

"I was wondering if you'd be up to tea on Thursday?"

"Always, I have a free period at ten and have no classes after four."

"Let's make it ten. See ya then."

He waved tiredly and began walking to his quarters on the third floor. He'd seen so many different decorations in this office that he'd had a hard time deciding what to do with it. Eventually he decided to just make it simple, the desk that had always been there with ink and his quill, and a picture of his family, with his third child on the way. There was a small shelf against the wall, that was laden with about twenty Defense books that he had simply for reference with scraps of parchment marking the places he had to reference often. Other than that there was a chair behind the desk and three folding chairs leaning up against the wall. It was simple, but good enough in his mind.

The next morning he felt very similar to how he felt before a battle or a quidditch match, it was only the fact that Ginny and Hermione's voices had wormed themselves in his head telling him that he should eat. He kept to his usual breakfast on a match day, a piece of toast, pumpkin Juice and a couple bites of eggs. He brought up the picture of his schedule in his head, he had three classes today, a double period with the sixth year Slytherins and Gryffindors, and single classes with fourth year Ravenclaw and Hufflepuffs and first year Ravenclaw and Slytherins. As he finished students began getting ready for their classes, and he decided to go prepare for his class.

The five Gryffindors were the first to appear and tried to take the entire first row, but he said, "Nope, you guys are on that side, Nat second seat in the front, Cassi behind her, Cygnus next to her. Leo behind Cygnus and Cae in the back corner."

They took their seats, but Cassi asked, "What's with the seating arrangement?"

"To help me learn names and houses of everyone, alphabetical by last name. In a couple weeks it will be free seating when we're using desks." He answered casually as a couple Slytherins walked in, he told them where they should sit. as the bell rang all but one person had arrived, a Slytherin who was holding all his books clumsily.

"Sorry I'm late, but I couldn't find my bag this morning and-"

"Just take a seat, Terry Loch, right?"

"Yes Sir." The boy said taking his seat.

"Okay let's get started. First off, I've never been fond of the whole 'Professor' and 'sir' thing, just call me Harry. Yes?" He said pointing at a Slytherin girl who had raised her hand.

"Why do you want us to call you that Professor Potter?" She asked.

"Do you want me to call you Student Barker?" He asked in return, she shook her head.

"Now that we have that taken care of," Harry continued, "Does any one else have any questions?"

"Yes sir- Harry. Why wasn't there a book on the supply list for Defense?" Cae asked, it was something he had told Cae on the train to ask during class so he wouldn't have to repeat it.

"We aren't going to be using books enough for them to really matter. That and I'm never going to be using the same book more than once or twice. I seriously don't believe they're necessary for this subject."

"So what are we going to be doing during classes?" Terry Loch asked.

"Practical lessons, tests, and occasionally taking notes from a section readout of one of my books or a lecture. And for you guys, testing starts today and will end next week." Harry announced.

There was a general groan around the room and someone complained that it was the first day and they were already getting tested, and someone else voiced that they thought that he would be an easy teacher.

"I'm not sure why you would think I would be an easy teacher, I am an ex-Auror and believe everyone should be able to protect themselves. And I apologize about the testing, but I really need to see what you know already and what you need to learn, there's no point in wasting both your time and mine. Today will be the written exam, and next class we'll start the practical tests. Don't worry if you can't do something, that just tells me we need to work on it. Any questions before we move on?"

"Will you be teaching us Death Rings?" One of the Slytherins in the front asked.

"No." Harry said immediately, "I will not teach you any of the unforgivable curses, especially not one that could so easily kill on accident when you don't mean to. Though it is part of Auror training to be able to perform the spell. No one ever uses it though. Okay, test time, you have the rest of the period to finish the test." With a simple wandless spell he distributed the tests.

The next class ran pretty much the same way, as did the one after that. And after a couple of weeks he was comfortable with teaching, and had made friends with most of the students. He and Snape started almost getting along, and eventually they got to the point where they could joke with each other. Harry went home during the breaks to visit with his wife, sons, and in Spring, his daughter and his family would usually drop by. and at the end of the year he left Hogwarts knowing that he would be back in Fall as the Defense teacher, because he had broken the curse on the job.

(A/N: Yes! I had a snow day today, so I was able to finish this chapter. Please review, I'll try to get the epilogue up soon.)


	21. The Epilogue

(A/N: Sorry about the last chapter being 29, something went horribly wrong… then again, it usually does. This chapter is serving as both an epilogue to BFTD and as a prologue to it's sequel, which will be more of a compellation of related short stories. Any way, here we go.)

Nine years…

He had held the position as defense teacher for nine years, Teddy was now a seventh year who was dating Victoire who was a sixth year. And now Jay was a first year, in two years Al would be a first year and Lil a year afterward (Ginny insisted on calling her Lilith, Harry had learned to keep to just rolling his eyes after being hexed the first time). He saw the Marauders often enough, such as today, Halloween and the first Hogsmeade trip of the year. At ten he had helped supervise the students leaving and had gone back to his office to correct a few of the essays he'd gotten the day before, then at two he was meeting the Marauders at the three Broomsticks.

Hermione had given him instructions on how to correct essays, but he still found the entire process tedious and gave them rarely. He still had half an hour until he had to leave and decided to rest, turning his chair so he could look out the window. His eyesight had worsened much since the incident, but sometimes the restriction bothered him. Most people didn't even notice his impairment. It wasn't too bad, he could see things directly in front of him quite clearly, but at about twenty feet things began to blur, and his peripheral vision was horrible. He could really only see what was directly in front of him. He still remembered how it felt to know his dad was sitting next to him trying to comfort him after killing Peter, but not being able to see him at all while panicking in his head.

He heard a small noise that caught his attention and looked to see a silver cat walking up to him, easily recognizable as Minerva's patronus, which began talking to him in her voice, "Pott- Harry, we need to talk to you with… a student… that has disobeyed a rule. Please do not leave your office."

With that the cat disappeared. Normally needing to conference with a student and a teacher was not unusual, three years ago Minerva had bequeathed the position as head of Gryffindor house to him. The tone was what confused him, she sounded unsure of herself, confused, which was very unlike the Professor McGonagall he had always known. _Bet it's Teddy… why can't this place ever be without troublemakers? _Nat Diggs and her four companions had proved to be trouble, and Teddy picked up right where they left off and now Jay was slowly showing he could cause trouble too, but he was more subtle.

There was a knock at the door, but not Minerva's (since his eyesight worsened the rest of his senses improved, and he knew the knocks of many Hogwarts teachers and students), it was… _Why's Severus here?_ He called for them to come in.

He was right, Snape had knocked, but McGonagall was with him, both scowling at the Gryffindor student they had caught disobeying the rules. That didn't surprise him as much as _who_ the Gryffindor boy was. Jay stood almost shaking staring at the floor, or his shoes, pretty much anything but the three other people in the room. _He can't even stay out of trouble for two months? _

"We found him in Hogsmeade." McGonagall said curtly.

"And as I'm sure you know, first and second years are not allowed to visit Hogsmeade, and after that _only with permission._" Snape had said the last part pointedly talking about the few times he had snuck to Hogsmeade third year, but he chose to ignore the sarcastic remark that he was itching to say. It was his job as Jay's head of house and father to take this seriously.

"Strange, I don't remember seeing him try to sneak in among the other students going to Hogsmeade this morning." Harry said, as of yet he had decided no to pass on the invisibility cloak, Jay had a very creative imagination and being invisible would only encourage him. Jay shuffled slightly, he wondered if under the protection of parseltongue he would talk more freely, _How did you get into Hogsmeade?_

_Teddy told me I should do it!_ Jay hissed loudly.

_And if Teddy told you to jump off the Astronomy tower, would you? _Jay looked up to Teddy as if Teddy was the perfect role model, and Teddy used that at times to get Jay in trouble.

_Well, no…_

_That doesn't explain how you got in, I didn't see with the others._

_I didn't go the same way as the others._

_I'm listening._

_Teddy gave me this map-_

"He WHAT!?"Harry yelled, temporarily forgetting parseltongue, which made all three of the others jump and stare, but they were all quiet for a minute.

"Harry?" Minerva said quietly, "Me and Severus will just be going, we promised to meet Albus." They left the room leaving the two to talk out what was going on.

Harry sighed, "I need to talk to Teddy about encouraging you to break rules."

"He didn't make me." Jay said, defending his idol.

"Which is exactly why you are in trouble."

"Right…" Jay admitted.

"Anything else I should know?" Harry asked, which Jay took to mean 'You should tell me if you did anything else wrong or you'll be in more trouble when I find out about it'.

"Well… yes." Jay took a deep breath, "I used the invisibility cloak that you told me I can't have yet that I took from your old trunk to keep people from seeing me at Hogsmeade."

Harry just stared at him for a moment with his arms crossed, "Jameson…"

Harry only used Jay's full name when he was in really big trouble, "Sorry." He said quietly.

After a moment Harry had recovered enough to talk, "I'm not all that disappointed that you snuck off to Hogsmeade. I'm not really upset at Teddy for giving you the Marauder's map-"

"So that's what it's called." Jay interrupted before Harry snapped his fingers in front of his face.

"Focus." He said sternly, annoyed at his son's utter lack of an attention span, "I'm not even too angry about you for swiping the invisibility cloak. I am disappointed that you got caught. You should have been able to keep it on and no one would even know you were there, I did it enough to prove you can, but that's not the point, How could you get caught. More importantly, where is the cloak now?"

"I handed it off to Teddy before I got caught."

"And the map?"

"Teddy has them both."

"Okay, but this will cost you fifteen points from Gryffindor and a detention later this week."

"With who?"

"Me."

He seemed relieved to know his father was the one he would have detention with, Harry gave him a speculative look and added, "Students generally prefer Snape's detentions." He knew Jay had had detention with Snape already this year and had hated it.

"Right, what night?" Jay asked.

"Wednesday will do. Now go back to your dorm and do your homework." Harry said shooing him from the room.

"But I don't have any-"

"Did you finish your potions essay?" Harry interrupted.

"Well, no."

"Then I believe you do have homework."

Half an hour later at the Three Broomsticks

Harry had just arrived and met the Marauders at the Three Broomsticks and the seven of them were sitting far too close in a corner booth. They had just finished saying hi and were on to more important issues, Dora opening the first, "So how's Teddy doing?"

"Depends." Harry answered.

"He didn't break another rule, did he?" Remus asked.

"Technically no, but I have to talk to him about encouraging his fellow students to break rules." Harry rolled his eyes.

"Jay." Lily said blandly.

"Not only did he suggest that Jay sneak into Hogsmeade, but he gave him the Marauders Map." This statement caused both of Teddy's parents to sigh before he continued, "Other than that he's doing great, he's top of his class and is doing a great job as Quidditch captain."

"I haven't seen him Seek in forever, how's he doing?" Asked Regulus who had taken the responsibility of training him at quidditch, James commenting every once in a while, but stopped when he was learning the technical aspects of Seeking.

"He's still getting better, he's going to try to get the snitch in less than five minutes in the match against Ravenclaw, I think he could do it." Harry answered staring into space like he usually did when talked to them.

"That's just creepy." James said from next to him.

"What's creepy?"

"You aren't looking at anything."

"Well, if I looked at you guys I would be constantly turning my head, and I don't see the point in it."

"Come on, it's not like you're blind." Sirius interjected.

"Actually, I am." Harry replied pointedly.

"Right, I always forget that. You just don't act like a blind person."

"I do my best not to, so how's it going at the Auror's Department?" Harry asked.

"Really calm actually." Lily said.

"There isn't much going on, and usually we end up acting as muscle for the Department of Magical Law Enforcement." James added dryly.

"Not much to tell." Sirius commented, "How's teaching?"

"Fun actually, but if you had told be that when I was in school I probably would have asked you why the hell you would say something like that." Harry mused, "I have fun getting to know the students and am friends with all of the teachers except-"

"Snape." James and Sirius both said.

"No, I was going to say Trelawny." Harry corrected, "How many times do I have to tell you that me and Snape get along before you'll believe me?"

"Come on, how can you be friends with that greasy git? He's evil!" James argued.

"Come off it, he's not evil, he hasn't been since…" They were watching him expectantly, "I need to get back into the habit of only giving the necessary information."

"I don't get what would make you think he's changed, you can tell us."

_Tell you that he hated Voldemort because he killed his one true love, who happens to be your wife? _"I really don't think you want to know, besides, I promised I wouldn't tell."

"Promised who?"

"Severus."

They spent the next hour talking drifting back to Snape every once in a while, but Harry refused to say anything, just like he had done for nearly seventeen years. Teddy had come in and apologized for encouraging Jay, Harry had accepted the apology and the Invisibility cloak (that he would in a place far more difficult to stumble across). He told Teddy that Jay might as well have the Map, he needed to work on not getting caught anyway. He smiled inwardly, this may be the end for Teddy's years at Hogwarts, but it was only the beginning for Jay and his younger children. The following years were sure to bring excitement, because every end is just the beginning of something else.

(A/N: Okay, BFTD is officially over. In about a week you should start looking for the sequel on my profile page, which will cover random events from Jay's first year to Lil's last. Thank you to all of my reviewers, and it's only because of you that I'm creating the sequel. Lemonbomber out, yo!)


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